Scintilla of Aberrant
by JosieBosies
Summary: Annora would base her whole life on one single word, hectic. The youngest and most qualified agent of SHEILD now was forced into hiding from an unknown force that was set on assassinating her. Peter Parker was a awkward teen in a regular high school. Both teens life's collided and it didn't help when he one day got bit by an mysterious spider.
1. Chapter 1: Not your average teenager

**DISCLAIMER**: I sadly do not own anything Marvel related or its characters or its plots. I only own my Character, Annora Stark and any other characters i create.

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 1

The wind felt nice on Annora skin. It was surprisingly breezy today in Queens, New York. She was on the ledge on the roof of a building she bought only five months ago. A couple of months prior to that was full of reconstruction and refurbishing since the building was built in the 1970s. When she picked it out the poor building looked like it was falling apart right where it stood. It cost a hefty price for all the rebuilding and new levels she inputted but money wasn't a problem with her.

Annora sighed in content and leaned back on her hands. Her long legs were off the building's roof dangling in the cool open air. This was nice, just her and the constantly noisy city morning. Her golden bronze hair was left down in its natural spiral curls and was flowing with the wind current. She took this leisurely moment to just be tranquil, and reflect on her new home. Annora wasn't legally of age to be out by herself but with her father she knew she could pull a few strings... or even cables. The building was only just finished now. All that was left was to make it homelier. Her building was like a smaller version of an edifice. It was her individual residence made entirely so that she could do what she usually does every day but still be in the building. It was four stories high and now was modernized.

Annora trailed her fingers along the ledge and lazily gazed down at the new and improved building. The once white bricked building was now supported by steel walls and undistinguishable bulletproof windows. The inside looked nothing like the outside. The entrance was comparable to a living room and the elevators went to the second and third floor only. On the second floor was recreational. The third was her personal gym, pool and a built in training Holoroom. To get to the fourth floor she had to take the passage through the bookcase from the library and there were to ways from there to get to her room, kitchen and guest rooms. The first was the spiral staircase or the more fun way was to free-climb there by rock climbing. Her room was by far the best. Her bed was stationed on the ceiling on the back right corner, from coming into the room, held up by two walls from the corner and a platform for her bed. She had to climb the ladder installed into the wall beside it to go up there. Down below was a living room, her desk with her laptop, her bathroom and walk-in closet, and the rest of the available walls had bookcases with books. She held quite the collection of books and her library couldn't hold all of them so she took her favorites to her room. There was a long rectangular window showing the city only seen from the small platform that held more bookcases and a walkway to reach the platform.

A bird's trill woke Annora from her thoughts. She stared longingly at the birds flying away. She slowly stood from the edge, walked to the door leading to her room, and locked it once she was inside. She was honestly surprised when her father agreed to let her live by herself here at such a ripe age of seventeen, but considering her circumstances, he allowed it. This was safer the way. He was type of father that worried but miserably fails to hide it from others. Annora loved her father dearly and sometimes her love for him went to great lengths. The feeling was mutual to her father as well. As his only child it was always second nature for him to check up on her. She didn't have much of his looks except the slight darker skin from her grandmothers' Italian heritage and his intelligence. All her looks came from her mother. From her hair, eyes, all to her five' seven stature. Annora's name came from her mother too. It was an unusual name that stood out along with her eyes.

Everything about Annora screamed strange, and she was not ashamed of it. In fact she saw it as a gift—to stand out amount the average human. And by gods did she know she wasn't normal, far from it actually. Annora didn't have any other hobbies other than painting, musical instruments, staying fit and flexible, and anything to do with engineering or science. Well she did find a fascination with walking around the city or watching people do their daily lives from above her building or any building. She enjoyed high heights and when the glittering diamond like stars shone in the sky. Alas, here in New York there was little stars scattered in the sky because of pollution. The only reason she like New York was because of the many things you could find here in stores and shopping. That was the way of Annora, fun, shopping, being lazy and building stuff. Annora wasn't as go with the flow like her father. She didn't even have a word or words to put herself into. When she could Annora would visit the Famous New York zoo to volunteer as a helper. Other than that Annora stayed in her new home idling around.

Then that awful day came and her father visited her about her slothfulness and literally blurted that he enrolled her into high school. She was furious at his announcement and demanded to know why which resulted on him saying that at least it was a science school. That made her a bit more complying with it, and if she was to be honest, she really didn't mind going to a normal public school because then she could try out the semi-normal life of a regular teenager. She would immediately go to school next Monday and today was Saturday. At precisely twelve o'clock her father's girlfriend was going to pick her up to take her shopping for all things involved with school. Her father's girlfriend was another person she held dear to her and liked immensely because here helped take care of her when she was little. Since her mother died when she was born Annora's father grieved in the wrong way and took solace in drinking, partying and woman at night. He wasn't the best fatherly figure but that changed over a while after a certain incident when she was ten and then as her father was kidnapped for two weeks and became iron man it was like he was a new man.

Annora went into her closet. She gazed at her impressive shoe collection and picked out her worn out grey converse. She slid out of her night outfit and pushed her legs into her grey skinny jeans and threw on a white tank top over a thin black spaghetti shirt. She went into her restroom and fluffed up her hair until it was nice and voluminous. Just as she had went into her kitchen and finished eating a sandwich, she heard a ring. Seeing as her home was a large building in the city, she had made sure to set up a damn good security system since this was New York where crimes were always happening. Along with that she put a ringer that told her that someone was knocking at the door. Annora quickly put any remaining debris into the trashcan and ran down the stairs from her kitchen to the first floor. Okay so maybe she did have other the ways to come up the fourth floor but she will always take the fun way. Annora swiftly put on her black leather jacket and grabbed her keys and wallet. She opened the door and hugged the auburn haired woman.

"Pepper!" Annora said as she released the surprised woman from her clutches. Pepper was a very attractive woman and that was no doubt. Her auburn hair—for once—was straight down to her shoulders instead of her customary pin-up. Annora regularly saw Pepper in casual clothes, since she was always in professional attire. Pepper wore comfy jean shorts and a red tee with black flats. The slightly tanned woman's blue eyes glimmered with happiness. Pepper smiled warmly at the teen and took in her appearance. She was stunned that Annora hugged her so openly after what transpired a year ago. She was happy the teen was finally coming out of her depression.

"Annora you hipster! Your tank top's cute."

Annora gave Pepper a pearly smile in thanks as she locked the door and all entrances into her building with a tap to her phone's screen. She followed Pepper down the steps to her...father's car. Annora got in the passenger's seat with a smirk. "Taking daddy dearest's car? Why Pepper, fore shame! You know he doesn't like others touching his stuff."

Pepper gave the teen a sly look and turned the ignition making the car purr so softly Annora gave an exhale of pure delight. Oh, she valued fast cars. "Well apparently we are your father's stuff as he claimed, so he didn't say that his stuff couldn't touch other stuff."

Annora paused in thought, then she wrinkled her nose afterwards. "For some reason that sounded gross."

Pepper laughed as she drove them to the nearest mall available. Which would be Queens Center about one mile away from her building. Annora's building was at the edge of the city where the neighborhood small homes met the city. What she also o had learned was she was at walking distance from her school. As Pepper parked in one of the many parking space at the shopping center Annora took in a deep breath and exhaled. She stepped out of the car along with Pepper and then they were off to the stores. The first one they went to was banana republic because both of them loved that store. Annora liked the rocker style mixed with a bit of trendy and professional clothing. She and Pepper both gravitated towards the pencil skirts. As Annora raked through the skirts Pepper's phone rang to the sound of familiar lyrics called Back in Time from ACDC. She rolled her eyes instantly knowing who was calling.

Pepper took one of the skirts off the rack and held it near her hips while she rummaged through her purse and answered her phone. She gave Annora the 'What-about-this-one?' look. Annora shook her head and pulled out another one for Pepper to see. Peppers eyes approved of the skirt and she took it into her hands.

"Hello?" Whatever her father was saying on the other side of the phone line must have been amusing to Pepper making her smile. "Well hello to you...No...I'm taking your daughter shopping for school which starts this Monday. Yes, yes we won't. She is being careful and we're safe. Okay...bye Tony...okay Bye...Tony hang up the phone...fine, okay I tell her." Pepper gave Annora the look she always does when her father was being a imp. "Your father says he loves you."

"Hm, I guess I love him too."

Pepper groaned. "No Tony she was kidding...Stark! No I won't give her the phone... I know that you two together is like a paradox...I love you too bye." Pepper put her phone back into her purse and playfully glared at Annora.

"Do you see what I put up with? Two Starks together is bad. I don't think I get paid enough." Annora rolled her eyes at Pepper and got into the checkout line.

"Pepper you don't get paid at all. You're the new owner of Stark Co. You get all the money, well, sort of."

"Half, I own half. You own the other half." Annora blinked at Pepper.

Pepper smiled at the younger Stark and paid for her own clothes as Annora waited. "Your father thought you should have a half of the business since the things that happened these past years." Pepper had to drag her out of the store with their bags because Annora's limbs couldn't seem to function. "You were very mature and strong, literally strong too." That seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in.

"That's because I'm my mother's daughter."

"Oh you are Zaria's daughter all right. Especially with your looks. Though I don't know which one you got your stubbornness from...or maybe you got both of theirs." Annora swatted at Pepper in amusement. She scoffed. She might as well say yes because she was extra stubborn.

"Am not."

The rest of the day went fine and Pepper made Annora buy a stock load of clothes. Once in a while Annora would pause and figure where exactly she wanted to go and then taking off the other direction. She was surprised that all those bags could fit in the Sport scar. Annora bought all kinds of shoes, clothes, jackets, and school supplies was easy to buy. All she bought was a brown leather backpack, mechanical pencils, lead, wide ruled paper, and journals. It was hard to bring all of Annora's bags up to the forth room and Pepper complained about it. Then Annora begrudgingly used the elevator to go to the fourth floor, but this elevator was from the first floor in one of the emergency elevators that went into her closet. Annora dropped off the last of her bags into her room and sat down on the floor with a sigh. She didn't tire easily but carrying loads of poufy shopping bags made it hard to walk straight in the small stairs. Pepper frowned at her. "I thought you couldn't get exhausted so easily." Pepper puffed breathlessly, the stairs giving her a little work out. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, her fingers working quickly with rubber tie.

"I'm lazy." She laughed at Annora's short answer, because she was. It didn't mean she was untidy just...lazy. She knew it was going to be a problem with waking up early for school.

"So school huh? How-how do you feel about that?" Annora's head popped up to look at Pepper. She shifted on the floor. She wasn't comfortable with sharing her feelings. It was something she inherited from her father though now she was slowly letting little things flow out. She already knew what Pepper was going to say.

"Um, it's...fine, yeah."

"Annora Sierra Stark, your taking this slowly alright, so don't lie." Pepper reprimanded her.

"I'm nervous okay? I-I don't know anything about going to a regular school. Heck, all I know is the stereotypical parts of a high school. I mean I've never been to a high school since I graduated MIT at fifteen like my father." She really couldn't comprehend normal other people's lives were because she never had normal. It just didn't work with having an intelligent billionaire father who was now known as the self-proclaimed Iron Man from the Avengers. Now just add her problems to the mix and you get a nuclear bomb. "If I mess up and someone finds out where I am…" She trailed off leaving the answer for Pepper to solve by herself.

Pepper sat next to Annora with her legs crossed. The older woman grabbed Annora's hands in hers and patted them. Pepper's eyes searched hers looking for anything to give her some insight. Peppers voice lowered. "This school thing...it'll help keep you busy. I know—"

"No you don't." Annora hissed fervidly. Her eyes flashed silver. Pepper flinched back with a gasp. Annora felt her body hum and her arms shaking. Annora released a gust of air. Her eyes returned normal and she visibly sagged into the wall trying to become invisible. She sighed, gripping her hands together and away from Pepper. She didn't mean to snap at Pepper—much less scare here. Annora tried to push people away because she thought it was much easier to do so than them getting hurt. After the Manhattan attack she learned the hard way to let people in before she lost them. Phil Coulson was an example of that. He managed to help and became some she could talk to without him judging her. He was her S.O., her friend, her advisor, and when he died in her arms, she couldn't think or feel. She went frantic and had therapy for months before they let her back on duty. "...I'm dead remember?" Annora mumbled.

Pepper didn't hold it against Annora for her temper. She predicted that would happen but she did get startled when her eyes flashed. That was a presage of her ire. She was getting better at keeping a composed attitude. She reached her hand out and pushed Annora's bangs out of the way of her face. She wouldn't look Pepper in the eyes. It was one of the only ways anyone could know she was nervous, angry, sad, or even guilty. "Your father wants you safe, and since you kept some things from him, he took matter into his own hands. You're lucky he let you even go out shopping today with me, and you don't have a disguise either."

"But I had to grow my hair out and have bangs to cover my eyes most of the time." Annora told her as she twirled one of her curls. She then said softly, "And how is going to school out in the open going to protect me? I'm already using an alias. He even knows I can take care of myself. I know and you know."

"Everyone needs some to protect them from things that they cannot. Physically or emotionally."

"When did you get so perceptive? What happened to my business woman?" Annora joked. Peppers phone then rang, ending their doleful talking. Pepper gave a little laugh.

"And she returns now." Pepper stood up, bring Annora with her. She hugged Annora one last time. "I have to go do business stuff now, goodnight Nori." Annora hugged her tightly before releasing her reluctantly. She couldn't keep Pepper here too long anyways. She gave a small smile back to her.

"You know the way out, yeah?"

Pepper was finished slipping on her flats and grabbed at her purse. "Yes, I do thankfully." She turned back around before she left the closet and gave the young Stark a sad smile. "Annora?"

The teen picked her head up from staring at the floor and laid her eyes on Pepper. Pepper sighed. "When you go to school...don't shut everyone out okay? Make some friends—find good ones and maybe a boyfriend. It'll help. And if you happen to find the right one, you'll know what to do." With that being said Pepper left the Annora to her thoughts and drove back to the tower.

Annora thought what Pepper told her was a good ideas but did she really want to bring someone into her life and put them in danger? She wouldn't be able to protect them all or if she had a boyfriend, what would she tell him when she went out on the job and came back a couple days later or late? Annora bit her lip and banged her head against the wall hard, cracks and a dent were left on the wall from her head. She sighed, she'll have to fix that later. Annora stay in that position on the wall and looked up at the ceiling. With her eyesight she saw the ceiling more defined and she could see the white paint and the dust particles in the air. They just floated and rode on the air currents. Annora blinked and then see couldn't see the dust or ceiling as well now.

She sat there for a while, just amplifying her eyesight then decreasing it. She used to like doing nothing sometimes and just stare up at the ceiling, but now all she can do is just think. She thinks about what if her mother was alive and she could finally have all the answers to her questions. That was so grand that Annora could had indefinite intelligence like her father but not have answers to simple questions like why didn't her mother tell her father anything, why was she like she was, did her mother have these gifts too, or who exactly was her mother? Annora knows her mother's name, she knows what her mother looks like, she knows how old she was, but she remembered her father confessing that when he asked her about her linage she would close up like a clam and stay that way until the danger was gone. Annora wanted to know what her mother was hiding. How could she do that if her mother doesn't even have documents or registries on property or anything? There wasn't even a trace of her yet. How could anyone find out about some who was gone with not even a clue? Annora liked to think that her mother was an impossibly unbreakable enigma. As if someone were to discover her mysteries it would bring in the end of the universe. She specifically remembered how worn out her father was when he tried to find anything on her. What difference would it make if Annora tried to investigate on her mother past and ancestors?

Annora pressed her lips together and laid on the white carpeted floor. Maybe she should just take a break from those thoughts on her mother and center it on school. School…what was her father thinking anyways? She was supposed to be laying low and now bringing any attention to her. At least until the threat was gone. She wasn't as per se dead but to the world she was missing. She wanted to be kept at missing just in case they were no longer a problem. Hopefully she wouldn't have to go through the dramatics of her faking being in kidnap or lost. She would snap if she had to do something so lame and unneeded like that. Life sucked.

_Oh yeah my life is never bland but now it feels like it_,Annora grumbled to herself in thought.

It really did and now she was only seeing the precautions of her work. If it wasn't one thing it was the other. She swore sometimes that if anyone ever made a show on her like or a reality TV show, she would be the most watched television show because of her abnormal life. There was not a single day in her life that was boring but as of now it was. School wasn't going to help her at all. It would bring more drama and that was the last thing she needed. Though she probably would have fun teasing the teacher about their capabilities in teaching or significant basics in their class. Oh that was another thing she would dread…having to fake her grades. If she were to have all perfect scores she would bring a lot more attention to herself. Annora didn't get to do so much of her job now since this stupid problem came up.

Annora felt that if she were to stay in this damn building any longer throughout these months she would break. That was kind of the reason she wanted this building built this way because with so many thing to do in here, she wouldn't get bored, but now she felt lonely. She had been by herself before doing her job but this was different because now she doesn't have anyone to joke around with or talk science to. Annora sighed, maybe school wouldn't be a bad thing. At least she would get to do school work even if it was too easy for her. Annora looked around the big closet and bit her lip. She was only looking forward to leaving the building now. Annora felt herself relax and her mind drifted in tranquility. Her thoughts went fuzzy and she only focused on her deep breathing and exhaling. Her limbs went limp and she closed her eyes. Even when she relaxed her body she still managed to say one sentence to say.

"Well it's not like anything bad can happen, right?" Annora laughed slightly distressingly. Damn…she really shouldn't have said that.


	2. Chapter 2: Sunday Moring Stroll

Scintilla of Ludic

Chapter 2: Sunday Moring Stroll

Annora stayed in her closet the whole night and woke up laying on her side surrounded by tons of bags. She leisurely allowed her body to wake up and observed her empty clothes racks in her closet. The walk-in closet was bare, too bare for her taste. It would have to change. She did a quick count of how many bags of designer attires she had and estimated that she would still have one third of the clothes racks empty. That was perfect for extra shopping she needed to do if needed later on, and with her it was probable. Annora stretched her arms and bended down touching her toes to get rid of any leftover lassitude. Two hours of the morning was spent with her organizing her clothes, shoes and other things in her closet, and the music cranked loud as it could in her closet.

Annora didn't even have a thin sheet of sweat covering her afterwards. Others, she knew, would be at least a tad sweaty from all the moving she did. Next she disposed of the multiple bags into a large bag and went to the back of her building all the way down and threw the bag into the dumpster in the alley. Annora would have had jelly legs when she went up the stairs all the way to her closet. She pulled on some black skinny jeans, even though it was April it was always a little chilly in New York no matter where. She flung on a slim black ACDC t-shirt that her father bought her for her last birthday. Annora wobbled up to the roof struggling to put on her hoodie and close the roof entrance at the same time. It took only three steps for her to feel the effect of the sunlight to fill her with renewed energy.

"Thank gods." She breathed, closing her eyes and letting the sun that briefly peeked through the clouds to energize her. She went to the lone table on her roof and grabbed her spare wallet that had money and an extra key to the building. Normally she wouldn't leave valuable stuff out in the open but she doubt someone could climb up the slick windows of her building to her roof.

Annora went to the edge of the roof where the alley was and glanced around her. She chewed on her plump pink bottom lip in anticipation. If her father found out she did this…someone saw her doing this and this leaked out she would be in trouble. Her boss would probably grind on her too. He always does. Annora shrugged her shoulders. It would be worth it if she could just fill that hole in her heart with a fleeted amount of adrenaline. She jumped off the ledge. The fall was brief and sent little thrill but she sucked it all up like it was cocaine to an addict. Well, she was an adrenaline addict. It would explain her implicit need to walk into daring situations. She landed with a soft thud and her knees bent slightly. She laughed a little and walked out of the alley and into the sidewalk. It _was_ worth it. Annora finally made it to the pizza joint she found a month ago and ordered one pizza slice with water. She would have gotten more but she didn't want to seem like a pig. She could almost imagine what the cashiers face would have looked like if she ordered six slices all for herself. She sat there chewing on the greasy pizza slice sometimes pausing to take a swish of water and watching the people walking by. She gave a lady-like snort as she viewed the never ending bustle of New Yorkers and tourists. It's been sometime since the attack in Manhattan and the Mandarin and they just go on about living their lives.

A chill crept up Annora's back and to her neck. She stilled and watched around her carefully. Something was coming and she felt like she was going to be situated in what was to come. The feeling was almost excruciating because she felt for the first time unable to do anything about it. Her timeline merging with someone else's. She squished the napkin in her hand and tried to even her breaths. It was the same kind of shift she sensed before her father's kidnap, before Thor's appearance, before the avengers, before the Mandarin, and now this. _Danger follows me everywhere,_ she thought sarcastically.

Annora reached in her pocket and dug out a thin rectangular transparent glass. She tapped the middle of the display and the glass lit up showing the home screen. She flicked through her contacts and pressed one of them that said 'The beast'. It didn't take long for him to answer. "Miss me already?"

"I'm bored."

"Aw, no hi daddy?" Her father joked.

"Hi daddy," She said quickly before going back to why she called him." Like said, I'm bored."

"Hm, and..." he paused for a second and Annora the telltale sign of tool clattering on a table. "Why are you in the city?" He inquired innocently.

Annora groaned in annoyance. Of course he would track her phone. She reminded herself to block her location from him later. "I'm not doing anything suspicious besides like I said I'm bored and," Annora lowered her voice down and told him," My timeline merged with another's."

"Who? Do you know why?" Her father was quick to ask. His worry made clear in his tone of voice.

Annora leaned back into her chair deflated. She rubbed her face with her other hand. "When something shifts my timeline or merges in some way I never know who but this is almost the same as when the...other events in the past."

Her dad was silent. He probably was situating what she told him and trying to find some clue. Finally after a moment, he told her, "Just be careful okay? We don't know who this person is or if it's just even one person."

Annora shook her head even though her father wouldn't see her movement. "No, it's just one particular person that is fused with the rest if my timeline."

"Okay is it like fused–fused or like fused-but-not-that-badly-fused? Because I'm not getting this weird sixth sense thing of yours."

"Tony."

"Whoa! My little baby girl brought out my name—now I know she frustrated."

"I'm going to hang up on you." Annora threatened her father. She wouldn't waste her breath with him right now. This was important. She felt like she was the matured one at times.

"Fine, look I gotta go baby girl. I love you. Don't forget your curfew is right after I hang up this phone. I'll check if I can see you sometime later. Don't do drugs and um...don't do things I would usually do. Yeah that good, wow I'm getting better at this parenting stuff. Bye, Nori."

Annora sighed and put her phone in her front pocket of her skinny jeans. She stayed at the table for a little while doodling with a small pen she found in her wallet. She drew a sketch of the people walking in front of her on a new napkin. It was faintly blurred since her hand rubbed against certain parts of the napkin. She hummed thinking of what she should do for now. She wasn't going to go back to the building like her father said for her to do. She wanted to explore Queens for a little bit since she only had seen Manhattan and even then she wasn't taking her time to look around her at that time since she was occupied at that time. Annora pushed the metal chair under the table, folded the napkin into a small square and pushed it into her pocket with her Stark-phone. She made her way through the crowds and covered her face with her hood, pushing her sunglasses on.

Annora found a small skateboard park five minutes later into her stroll through the edge of the city. It was nice but a little dingy. A few trees littered the area and Annora complicated on climbing one. She was just walking by the large skate bowl when she heard the telling sound of a skateboard behind her. She ignored it thinking the person would switch courses. What she didn't know was the speed the person was going at. All she heard was a shout and she was thrusted forward as a body slammed against her back. The way her back slapped against the floor with an audible thud made her wince. The strong force that pushed her back to the ground would have caused severe bruises to her back if she just an average person. Annora's glasses skidded to the floor and her head thwacked on the sidewalk making her hoodie come free. There was a heavy body on top of hers leaving her to wait for the person to move off her. A groan was heard along with a mutter of apologies.

All Annora saw was disarrayed chocolate brown hair nuzzled up against her chest. Oh, this was just not her day was it? Too much bad luck she'd say. The head lifted off of her chest and his warm mocha brown eyes stared into her eyes. It was only in that spilt moment she knew who fused into her timeline. The cause of her distress was staring right in front of her. His eyes widened taking in her face. Annora wasn't an idiot, she knew she was considered stunning and would usually turn heads her way if she attracted attention to herself by other ways than her looks. She had light olive flawless skin that never tanned any darker or paled after days without seeing the sun. She had a beautiful body figure, the kind girls felt offensive by when she was nearby, the kind you would see on Vogue magazines. Her hair splayed on the concrete like a golden bronze halo of ringlets. Her eyes were what captured Peter Parker's attention. The golden ring around her pupils surrounded by turquoise green. They were her best feature. He thought that she was perfect. Peter could see that she wasn't blinded because of her inhumanly beauty nor was she flouncing about showing herself off. That he could tell because she didn't have any noticeably skimpy clothes on her. Her pink lips were pulled into a frown making her full bottom lip stretch downwards.

"Damn it." Annora groaned and slammed her head as soft as she could against the paved ground.

The teenaged boy scrambled off of her with a distinguishable blush on his olive skin. He cleared his throat and pushed a hand out to her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to um, crash into you."

Annora took his hand into hers and felt a sense of warmth fill her. It was strange and obfuscated her greatly. She eyed his hand strangely and promptly snatched her hand away from him and gave him a scowl."Next time you should call out to the person to move not when you collide with them." She snapped testily.

He scratched the back if his neck awkwardly and gave a hesitant nod. "Uh yeah sure."

Annora scoffed, rolling her eyes before rubbing at her face irritated. He was a very maladroit person by far. She stomped her left foot ignoring the teenager still standing there."Ugh, this is not my day! And now I'm acting like a petulant child. Whatever I'm gone, bye skater boy." She left him not waiting for him to give her an answer.

Annora was mumbling the whole way back to her building. Her mind was spinning in confusion. That was the problem in her timeline? She didn't know exactly what to feel. Maybe she should go back and slap him? No…that wrong, right? Her thoughts were boggling with new questions about the skater boy. She was close to her building she noticed as she past the small shop three doors up from her building. Now that she's remembered—she should really make up a name for her building other than calling it building in her mind all the time. She wasn't going to necessarily call it home yet. It doesn't feel like that yet. Annora made a face, someone was following her. She was right because just when she past the alleyway of two buildings someone grabbed her arm and tugged her into the alley. She turned her head staring straight into a gun pointed at her. Yeah this definitely was life messing with her. She stayed calm knowing she could get out of this.

That was until the person spoke."I could have killed you then and there." The woman's voice spoke out.

Annora gave a mischievous smile. "Oh but what's the fun in that? If you haven't noticed yet, I'm kind of bullet proof, well to an extent." Annora then asked curiously."What are you doing here? What happened to the team Captain? Is he here too?"

"Nah, just wanted to see my favorite little assassin and how she's liking the dead." Oh, sarcasm. Yeah that's defiantly Natasha. Annora could see Natasha perfectly fine in the dark but technology is so innovated she wouldn't put it past anyone to try and impersonate people she knows to kill her.

"Oh it's life brilliant, thank you." Annora said sourly.

"Well obviously I'm here to save you life." Natasha said as she put her gun back into its holster and hid it with her leather jacket. She wrapped an arm around the Stark's shoulder, leading her away from the alley and into the direction of her building. "Let's go somewhere a bit more secure."

When the two reached Annora's building Annora sat on the long leather couch in the first floors living room. The nefarious Black widow stayed standing looking around in mild interest. "Nice place."

"Your hairs longer than the last time I saw you. It's nice," Annora complimented her as she eyed the beauty's shoulder length blazing red hair. She smirked then and said," Are you trying to impress a certain Captain Tasha?"

Natasha rolled her eyes at the teen's imprudent question. She was trying to see if she could get a rise out of her. Annora was the only other person other than Fury, Barton, or her father that talked back to her like so without fearing getting shot or beat up till they were crippled. "I'm not capable of falling in love…not with this job."

Annora and her were quite, both thinking about what Natasha said. It was true. Having any other significant or family was dangerous but wasn't heard of. Annora was already worrying about Pepper and her father communicating with her now. Annora shook herself out of the disheartening thoughts and gave Natasha a hard look. "Okay spill it Tasha. I know you to some degree to know this isn't a friendly chat visit."

"Well, it's more of notifying you of a mission than anything." Natasha mused, crossing her arms. Greens eyes settled on the youngest agent known in SHEILD.

Annora sighed."Of course, but why so early now. I don't take SHEILD as a consult-with-the-agent-then-send-them-off kinda division."

"Mhm, your right about that. SHEILD wants to know if you're still available for some regular around the jobs or is school going to get in the way?" Natasha finally said in all her seriousness.

"I graduated from high school once—I think it's safe to say it wouldn't matter if I miss a few weeks or days of school."

"That's good then. I'll be joining you on a mission at the end of May then." Natasha practically ordered before she noiselessly left.

Annora sat on the couch with her mouth wide enough to catch a swarm of flies if she wanted to. Natasha wasn't one to ask just like SHEILD wasn't one to order—they expect you to do it. She wasn't so shocked that the Black widow found her because she has her ways and probably it was because SHEILD made it their business to know everything about their agents and their whereabouts. Annora worked for SHEILD in many things also involving assassinations, engineering, and one-agent jobs that include lots of danger. She didn't trust SHEILD by gods she didn't, but she trusted Director Fury and Agent Hill along with Natasha and the newbie Captain America. Annora felt bad for Cap since he has no idea what he just got into. Once in SHEILD, everyone always have to watch their back because they will make ememies.

Annora got off the couch and stretched her limbs. She went to a vacant small closet in the right hallway on the first floor. She reached up to the hanger and twisted down. A hiss sounded and the back of the closet wall slid open sideways. A medium sized elevator waited behind the closet wall. Annora stepped in and the door shut with a click. Annora's stomach gave a flip and she felt a similar feeling of falling for only a short few seconds before the door opened and Annora stepped out. White marble walls glistened when the dark rooms lights turned on within the second Annora came in. The room shown with high-tech. Four thick crystal tables were filled with scientific apparatus, and shelfs lined one wall with equipment. The lab itself was big and with lots of bodily room for plenty of testing. Annora went to the back of the room where a nice desk and chair was. She sat herself down on the chair and turned on her glass tablet. She then proceeded to roll herself down to a Holotable near her.

"Alright SIA I need you to tap into all high school student files within a five mile radius." Annora rolled her shoulders with a slight smirk."We're going on a manhunt."

"Yes ," SIA replied and the holotable switched in bring out two holoscreen's of files. SIA was Annora's AI like JARVIS but her acronym meant Significantly-Intelligent-Assistant. "I have listed all students together within your range."

Annora squinted her eyes."Hmm, take all girls out of the list, and ..." Annora thought quickly about the awkward teenaged boy. He was about her age maybe so he would be in eleventh grade then. "Leave only male Jr's from the high schools."

"Have you lost a boyfriend, Ms.?" SIA inquired.

Annora laughed. She thanked herself for instilling SIA some humor. "As if, alright let's get down to business.

Annora quickly went to work. If this awkward teen was jumbled into her life she might as well find out why and how, and that involves participation. Annora's eyes flicked between both screens in a fast pace looking at all the male teenagers face trying to find a set of familiar brown eyes and disarrayed hair. Annora wondered why he was even in her life now because he was just a regular boy in New York. _Looks can be deceiving,_ a voice seemed to say from nowhere specifically. Annora deliberated for a moment as she scanned the many faces of students. The weird voice that she probably would get emitted into the crazy house for was right. She may look like a beauty to behold but no one would really she her as unusual or an agent how is sent to kill. That skater boy was either more than he appeared. Or was important to something that will happen soon this year. A flash of familiar coffee eyes caught Annora attention from her internal musing.

"Wait, wait…go back SIA." Annora ordered of the AI. SIA slowly went back slowly so Annora could look for the person insistently plaguing her thoughts. "There stop, pull up…Peter Parkers student files―all of them."

Annora's breath caught as she stared out at the picture of the now known Peter Parker. He was boyishly attractive she'll give him that much. Her eyes traced his strong oblong chin to his inviting lips, the bottom lip was fuller and Annora couldn't take her eyes away from them. Annora blinked after a moment trying to gather her thoughts. The hell? What was that? Annora was glad no one was present to see her openly ogle the picture of Peter Parker, and to see her blush.

"What has gotten into me today?" Annora rubbed her forehead trying to physically rub off those revealing thoughts of being attracted to someone one. She was not going to be compromised, nope she wouldn't allow it. Jeez, she only just met the teen and momentarily at that and now here she was scrutinizing him like piece of eye candy. Annora went back to reviewing his file with the picture out of the way this time so she could get some work done.

His name of course was Peter Parker, and his Parents were dead. He lives with his uncle and aunt and is very intelligent in sciences. He, being very well off in science, caught her eye. He was her age like she guessed and in AP classes in Midtown school of science. "Of course." Annora said out loud to herself.

Ironic enough he goes to the same school she was going to tomorrow. Once Annora got all the information she could on Peter and deemed it satisfying she closed all files and headed out of her lab. Well tomorrow she guessed she should think about how to approach him or if she should even be friends with him anyways.


	3. Chapter 3: First for Everything

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 3: First for everything

There was nothing Annora hated worse than crowds of whispering girls who went quiet when she passed, she started writhing the straps of her leather backpack, when she couldn't calm the stress chipping at her purple painted nails 'till it was all off helped her. She was so worried someone would put the missing pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle and scream out her name bringing swarms of crowds to her. It was funny because there was no way they could even notice she was Annora Stark, 'The missing daughter'. She felt like half the time since she walked to the school that she was impersonating some regular girl instead of being herself, but when she reflected on it she turn melancholy. She practically was impersonating a normal girl. Since yesterday Annora stayed up late in her room creating a cloaking device she still had no name for yet. What she built was a clear bendable S-band in a small hexagonal shape that she would place on her forehead that allowed her to disguise her face into any face she could imagine made entirely by holographic technology. To fit into the background more she decided to go with a more geeky approach.

Annora fleetly made her way to the girl's restroom. She sighed in relief. She was away from the prying eyes of snobby teenagers now. The restroom was clear of any brash teen girls and for that Annora thanked the gods. Annora gripped the polished sink tightly and tried not to apply too much pressure for it to brake. Annora lifted her eyes to the mirror in front of her. A typical average-looking teen girl's dreary blue eyes stared back at Annora. Her thin lips twisted down making her rounded cheeks puff. Annora tucked her short loose strands of hair behind her ear and saw the geeky girl do the same. She took her hand away from the inky black wig and placed it back on the sink. Annora thought that maybe changing her appearance to be nerdier would help so she brought black squared glasses that framed her face. She knew this mousey look of hers would cause any bullies to target after her, and she was sure as hell not going to let that happen. Annora shook her head, no she had to if she wanted to maintain her cover.

The sharp ring of the bell startled Annora out of her mulling. Annora snorted, daydreaming here I come. Annora tightened her grip on the straps on her backpack and walked away from the bathroom. Finding her first class was easy. Only a couple of doors down from the previously occupied restroom was. Annora blended in well alright. She faded right into the crowds of the other students. Of course not without any snickering or lashing of verbal words. Annora hid her amusement well. She only let a small amount of a smirk make itself known. Teenagers these days thought they were so clever and strong. They wouldn't last a day doing what she does. A bit condescending but its true.

Annora shuffled into class not really wanting to go in. She briskly walked to the farthest table from the front of the class, sat herself down, placing her bag onto the floor close to the table. Annora got a journal out and a pencil. All the other classmates drifted to their seats and chatted away. The room was painfully noisy making Annora want to yell at everyone to shut up. Annora tucked her head into her arms and shut her eyes. The glasses made it an uncomfortable position but she managed. Annora sensed someone coming her way and tensed. The person stopped and shifted as if not knowing what to do. After a beat of a moment they made up their mind. Annora felt and heard the slap of a backpack on the table and the student slipped into the seat next to hers. Annora ignored their presence but she couldn't entirely shake off the chills she got from whoever sat beside her.

She finally found herself in a deep meditating state. Her breaths evened out and her tense form slackened. She nearly felt like she was drifting asleep but the shifting air and faded lively noise around her told her otherwise. She would give anything to be down in her lab right now. She regretted telling SIA to wake her up so early now because maybe just maybe if she didn't say anything, she could have missed school today and have to go tomorrow instead. The teacher― who she didn't listen to― was doing roll call after the late bell rang and all the students quieted down― surprisingly.

"At-atra Noble?" Annora heard someone—probably the teacher— say. "Is that how you say it?"

"Atria Noble, sir." Annora answered from her spot. A collective amount of shifts sounded. That told her the students in their chairs turned to her voice. Fortunately, Annora didn't have to change her voice along with her disguise.

"Ah, Atria Noble, well Ms. Noble what I—Mr. Kidd—do when a new student graces themselves into our school is I ask that you tell us five things about yourself along with a brief introduction of yourself." The English teacher, Mr. Kidd said.

Annora sighed as she sat up straight and arbitrated the teacher. Blading head: in his late forties along with stress of being a teacher and money issues, moved some years ago from England told by his slight accent, wrinkles around mouth suggests he had a happy life. His left ring finger used to hold a wedding band by the light skin surrounded by a darker tan showing his recent divorce or wife's death? Annora gave a faint smirk when Mr. Kidd moved his eyes away from Annora's unwavering stare. _Still got it in me to make people shrivel by my stare_, Annora thought.

"My names Annor-Uhhh...Atria Star-Noble, um Atria Noble, and I like science and mechanics, I want a pet unicorn like every other girl does, I like long walks on the beach, um...I-I um yeah, I got nothing else Mr. Kidd'." Annora stumbled on her words. Some of the classmates laughed at her unicorn comment. Whether it was with or against her, she didn't know.

Mr. Kidd pressed his lips together in minor agitation. "Very well, alright today's objective is on the board now..."

Annora tuned the Mr. Kidd out and glanced at the student next to her. She held her breath. She knew he would be in a couple of her classes but she didn't think he would already be sitting next to her. Peter Parker, who goes to Midtown High school in his eleventh year, lives in a small two story house in the suburbs. He was in walking distance of her building. Peter was slouched in his seat forward, crossing his arms. Annora decided she should at least try and make small talk.

"Hello."

Peter jumped a tiny distance when a melodic voice spoke out close to him. He twisted his head over to the new girl. He was confused that she would talk to him. Mostly all the students ignore him and he ignored them too. She was fairly average in looks and she gazed at him with a quizzical look. It was like she couldn't figure him out. Peter gave her a small smile. "Hey, uh..."

"An-Atria Noble, you?"

"Peter Parker."

"Well it's nice to officially meet you Peter Parker." She said, quirking the edge of her lip up.

"Officially?" Peter asked muddled by the word, but she only smiled at him mysteriously and opened a page in her journal to draw in.

Annora let the silence slip between them only a couple of minutes as Mr. Kidd began his lecture. She sketched began to sketch Steve's legendary shield before she asked, "Do you think you can help me get to my next class Peter? I would be very glad if you could."

Peter opened his mouth then closed it just as quickly as he opened it. He nodded his head. "Uh, yeah I can."

It was dull after she had her small conversation with Peter. She was a pintsized disappointed he didn't try to talk to her anymore but she should have predicted that to occur. After all, she just only formally met him now, no less as a different face. Annora half paid attention to the teacher before she settled on finishing Caps' shield. Her pencil stroked the thin curving lines of the shield before she lightly shaded in to bring in more texture. She then had her whole mind focused on only that.

"A fan of Captain America?"

Annora stopped mid-stroke of defining the star in the middle of the shield and looked at Peter with amusement. She bit her lip from laughing because out of all her teammates in The Avengers her favorite was Bruce. He was always soft-spoken and nice. Steve was too but Bruce was her science buddy.

"I just love his shield…Its so lightweight but strong." By now Annora wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. "Vibranium-steel alloy—that's what Captain America's shield is made of. The strongest metal in the world."

"I saw the videos on him, but I didn't know what his shield was made of. How'd you know that?" Peter asked.

Annora rolled her bottom lip into her mouth, searching for a reasonable answer to tell him. She didn't realize she told him about that. Though she understood, someone might have details on Steve's life…somewhere. "I found out by a fan site on him. You wouldn't believe how many fans the Avengers have already."

"Are you a fan of them—The Avengers?"

Annora laughed quietly. She flicked her eyes up at the ceiling before settling them back on Peter. One side of her lip curled up. "No not really a fan per se. There not as awesome as people like to picture them...Their no _fun_." She mumbled the last part to herself.

"Really?"

"Really." Annora nodded in confirmed.

Peter stared at her in doubt. For months and still today The Avengers is what everyone brags about. It wasn't believable she didn't hold that much of an interest with any of them. "You don't like the Hulk, or Ironman?"

"Nope."

"How about that one girl the um…They call her the Celestite?" He prodded.

Annora raised an eyebrow at her alias. Her face scrunched at the name. "Gods, couldn't they have come up with a better name?"

"You don't like her?"

"It's not that I don't like her. They could have just came up with a better name than Celestite."

The topic of The Avengers closed off. Annora halfheartedly listened to Mr. Kidd's lesson after she ran out of space to sketch on the page in her journal. She would put effort into listening to Mr. Kidd then when he went on and on she would center her eyes on the board in boredom. She would tap the floor with her right foot checking the time. Then run her hands through the dry black strands of the wig placed on her head. She tried not to make a face at wearing a wig. One of the reasons she never took espionage assignments that involved a disguise was because of wigs. She detested anything that deals with wigs or body piercings. She remembered once when she was at Chicago, she bumped into a man with many bodily piercing and the ugliest of tattoos, nearly gave her a heart attack.

"Atria…Atria."

Annora blinked. Too lost in her thoughts Annora didn't notice Peter calling her 'name' until now. She observed in confusion that the other students leaving the classroom. Puzzled, she stared at Peter waiting for an answer. "Class is over."

"Oh." She laughed. Why else would the students leave for?

Annora tucked the pencil she used to sketch in the spiral of the notebook and slung her backpack on. "Alright show me the way."

"I can't show you if I don't know where to take you." He smiled.

Annora bit her lip. She took out her schedule and passed it to him. "Right, there you go."

They managed to go to two more class before Annora had to leave him for art class. During those two classes Peter opened up and talked more. He had interesting subjects to talk about and Annora found herself laughing at his hidden humor. He didn't ask personal questions though he did ask about where she came from and such. Annora gave half-truths and white lies if she could. Working with SHEILD, she was required to lie sometimes—to keep things confidential— but for some reason lying to peter made her feel worse more than it did when she lied to her dad and Pepper. She recalled when her dad and she would argue when she came home bruised—and that was saying something since she hardly ever bruised.

Annora followed the line of students filing into the art classroom. One thing that Annora didn't expect at school was the chaotic assembly of the students in the hallways. She waste all five minutes in between class shoving the teenagers away so she could make it class. Annora sat in the back of class panting in not from exhaustion but from agitation. A couple of senior girls had the gall to shove Annora to the floor no purpose calling her freak…only if they really knew.

"Hello!" An upbeat and chirpy voice greeted. Annora, who was glaring at nothing in particular jumped at hearing the voice. She spun her head and was met with the face of a redhead. Her skin looked naturally tanned. Blue glimmering pair of eyes stared right into Annora's. Though she was annoyed the girl ruined her little fuse from earlier, she approved of the girls outfit. A pink floral, knee-high skater dress, completed with black studded ballet flats. All Annora wore today for school was casual jeans and a V-neck purple shirt with converse.

"Hi?" Annora said more like a question. This girl was the first one to not scowl or sicker at her.

The redhead giggled like Annora said the most hilarious thing, making Annora wonder if the girl was sane. The clearly not sane girl held her hand out to Annora. "My names Audrey Vasquez, and you?"

Annora took her hand and shook it tightly. "Atria Noble." She didn't stumble on her name this time. She had been saying it too many times now that it almost seemed like it was her name now. Audrey then proceed to sit next to Annora and smiled that odd smile reserved for people who needed to be in the mental institute. Annora like her already. Anyone who was crazy- like as Audrey was acting was alright in her books because that was how all geniuses are.

"So where'd you come from?" Audrey asked bouncing in her seat.

"I was originally from Miami."

"And how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Do you listen to Paramour, muse or maybe ADCD?"

"Yes, and my father is a big fan of ACDC do…yeah."

"Oh, and how about a pet? Do you have a pet? I loved dogs' especially German shepherds. Have you went out of town before, or out of country? Are you good in school?—"

"Whoa, hold up I can't understand you!" Annora cut the inquisitive girl off from her queries.

Audrey faulted as she noticed she was talking fast. She frowned. The small frown on her lips seemed so irregular to her face. Like her face was not made to frown. "Yeah, sorry I forget to slow down but to be fair people shouldn't waste time moving slow when there is a big world out there to be explored and it would take lifetimes to see everything."

"I find myself thinking the same thing once or twice." Annora gave her with a smalls grin.

Audrey nodded and went on about how she wanted to go to the Maldives and find the lost city of Atlantis. Annora admitted to herself that finding Atlantis would be amazing to do but it was just ruins and would take forever to find just like it took decades to find Steve in the Arctic Ocean. She reasoned even with Atlantis being a big city, that since it was lost for so long it would take my more decades to find. Annora was happy with just listening to Audrey prattle on about different odd things. Annora kindly answered Audrey's questions about herself and if she went anywhere. Though she too had gave Audrey half-lies. Annora thought Audrey was very enriching and someone she could just talk to about her dreams and likes. The whole period with Audrey was a consolation from her job and life, like nothing could bother her here.

Audrey showed Annora her drawing that she drew and Annora really liked her artistic style. After school Audrey and she walked home. It turns out Audrey walks the same way she does to her building. When Annora walked inside her room she threw her bag to the floor and climbed the ladder to her bed and once on the platform she sagged into he comforter. She puffed air out from her mouth and grabbed her phone right when it rang.

Annora grumbled cruses and answered the phone. Before she could even talk her father beat it to her. "How was school my littlest one?"

"It was…helpful. You know just what I wanted to do…being shoved to the floor and bullied by stupid kids."

"Uh huh, and you're not a kid?"

"I'd like to think since I have more authority than them and a better educational background that…well yeah I'm not a kid." Annora explained.

"Humph, you'll always be my kid. And about bullying, Nori you got a job requiring combat—you can handle a couple of witless bullies."

"Maybe, but I'm not looking to get in trouble on my first week of school unless it absolutely calls for it. I don't want any more attention then I already have." Annora sighed.

She talked to her father for a while before they both tried to hang up on each other like it was a contested. With her father she always found herself trying to one-up him. Annora lied in bed thinking about school. It wasn't as bad as books and shows made it seem. The bulling though, she couldn't handle and she was afraid she would burst one day if it got too bad. In a somnolent state, her nagging self-awareness forced her to remember to tell SIA about setting an alarm clock on for five in the morning before she fell to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Won't Rest

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 4: Won't Rest

Annora Stark thought she was having a nightmare, but actually she was just reliving a moment in her past. The frightening images haunted her—rouge agents shooting at her, fighting aliens, running through the wreckage growing thicker and thicker to help her team against something she couldn't for the life of her remember for some reason—but her response to them from the outside had been indifferent, methodical and somber. When the danger persevered, she would simply tell her self it was all in the past now and a dream. That she would wake up. And that's what she did. She sat up from her bed with slight perspiration coating her body. She felt dizzy, the essence pounding on top of her head and something burning down her left arm. It hurt too much to be a dream.

Throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she jumped from her bed and fell about maybe twelve feet from the platform to the ground. With a small inaudible thud she landed on the floor and stood up. As soon as she was fully upright, she felt light-headed and wobbled. She was lucky to land right when she jumped a while ago. She kept a hand on the wall close to her and started toward the bathroom. Just walking left her short of breath. That couldn't have happen from reencountering one of her most horrible memories. That's when she saw something glint out of the corner of her eye.

She continued to the bathroom and flicked the lights on. She squeezed her eyes shut at the blinding light and waited for her eyes to adjust. When she opened them she could now clearly see what her problem was. Without warning, her knees gave out, and she realized that she was not suffering from a bad reminisce but from lack of essence. She stared in confusion at the jagged line on her arm. Thick white dust-like matter came out of the cut. That must have been what she saw from the corner of her eyes. When the simmering particles built up it would lift into the air and fade away. Annora hesitantly touched the substance and hissed, flinging her hand away from the throbbing cut.

Annora cursed, she must have scratched herself really bad somehow when she was asleep. She raised her hand into the air and held her pointing finger up. One small bead of that twinkling stuff—her essence— was on her finger. She held it upside down watching as it defied gravity, slid up to her nail and floated up to the ceiling. She must have bled out for some time to feel so tired. The first aid kit—made especially for her—was only a few feet away, and she staggered to it. Grabbing a hold of the knob to the cabinet, she opened it and stood up shakily. She took hold of the small metallic box and allowed her body to collapse to the floor. She hurriedly opened it and took out the already prepared needle and injected the clear liquid into her arm. She instantly felt the effect of the injection on her body. Her essence slowed until it no longer seeped out of her cut and she allowed herself to laugh in relief. She was losing too much of her essence and if she would have woken up any later she wouldn't have made it and would have devitalized.

Her essence was the very life of her. It was what kept her alive much like blood. She didn't have a single drop of blood in her body and instead had that glitzy matter she called her essence. Weird thing was it wasn't liquid it was more of a dense gassy matter that floated which was unlikely, for anything as dense as that to do but it does. Annora, still weak, wrapped her wound in a gauze. It was around an hour later when she felt better and decided to stay up and get ready an hour earlier than attended.

The young Stark when about her daily get-up routine. After she finished she sat on the couch at the first floor with her backpack next to her. She was reading one of her many favorite books called _The Hobbit_. One thing she unconditionally loved was Tolkien. She liked the idea of anything fantasy related. She remembered when Thor came onboard the Hellicarrier. She asked him so many questions about his home and if there were dragons and such since he spoke like he was from the Middle Ages and was in another wholly different world. She was disappointed when he laughed at the idea of dragons and told her there were no such beast she described of.

Annora sighed. She pondered on how she cut herself so badly this morning or was it last night? She really couldn't tell which it was. She decided it probably was last night because of her dizzy spell she was in. She assumed it was because of her dream which then in result triggered her to lash out on whatever was near and that was incongruously herself. She was dreaming about Manhattan again. Apparently some of the Avengers had problems with it too. She had talked to Barton about it to see if he was having any problems but like every other prideful man he disagreed. But she could see it in his eyes—a flash of weakness. It happened to her father too, but he succeeded in overcoming it. If any others were troubled, she wouldn't have known because they were away or hid it well.

Annora check the time on her clock. She had thirty minutes to walk to school before the first bell rang. She put on the disguiser device and huffed at doing so. She hated hiding really not seeing why she had to but remembered what that her father told her she was not invincible. Annora locked all the doors with her phone and settled on an easy walking pace to school.

As Annora was waiting at the edge of the road to cross, someone—who stupidly wasn't paying attention—was about to skateboard across and get ran over by an oncoming car. On closer inspection she detected a familiar head of tousled brown hair. Annora make a sound of frustration. _Reckless skater_, Annora thought irately. She didn't know why she cared if he got run over so seriously and though it was because like anyone else she wouldn't want to see anyone hurt.

Annora hastily yanked him by his hoodie right when the car almost hit him. The skateboard he was on flew down the other side of the street oddly unscathed. The driver honked and yelled at them before continuing on. Peter didn't even have time to think about what almost happened as Annora tugged on the earphones that undoubtedly obscured him from noticing the car with the loud she could hear coming from it. "What the hell Peter? You could have gotten ran over if I hadn't pulled you away!"

Peter was struck at how concerned she was about him. After she said that she started checking over his body for injuries. Peter then lightly pushed her away chuckling. "Sorry, I didn't know you'd care that much, but thanks really for dragging me away from that car."

Annora blinked at him. He didn't seem as much frightened by almost getting ran over. She shook her head, pulling him by his arm she walked across the crosswalk. "You're so confusing sometimes. I can't ever figure you out."

Peter furrowed his eyebrows together. He grabbed his skateboard from the ground when they neared and held it in his hand. "What do you mean?"

Annora waved her hands around and seemed to be stuck about how to explain. She just settled on shrugging her shoulders saying, "I honestly don't know."

Peter laughed for the first time in front of her. He grinned. "That the first time for someone to say to me."

"And is there others?"

"What do you mean by that?" Peter asked perplexed.

"Friends, you know, do you have any. I haven't seen you with any other students so far yesterday."

Peter stops smiling then and says slowly like he's not really wanting to say it. "Uh, no…none that I would consider."

They walked in silence. Annora blamed it on herself for asking because now Peter's mood had deflated. The cold breeze brushed the black hair away from Annora's face and she looked up at the clouds. It was going to rain soon and she prayed that it wouldn't rain after school. Little light spilled out through the crack in the ashen clouds. Annora's soul ached to just jump up and reach for them.

She strained her hands from its persistent twitching. She cleared her throat. Peter's eyes met hers. "So, today is A day right or is it B?"

"It's B." Peter confirmed.

"So then I go to my fifth through eighth periods? How long are the classes anyway?" She asked Peter.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, they're each about…ninety minutes long. You don't have A day-B Day's from your old school?"

Annora shook her head with a weak smile. "…I was home schooled."

"Ah, that explains why you looked so confused by lockers." Peter said with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

Annora scowled at him and crossed her arms. "Yeah well…the stupid thing wouldn't open up."

Peter laughed again and Annora rather liked his the sound of his laugh. It was welcoming. He didn't stop as he told her between laughs, "You banged your head against it when you finally opened it _afte_r I helped you."

Annora huffed at him and walked briskly to the nearing High school. Peter effortlessly cached up to her softly chuckling. He smiled at her leaving Annora to forget him laughing at her expense as she smiled back. "Thank you though, Peter, for helping me yesterday. I probably would have been lost the wandering the halls forever." She rolled her eyes at the last part jokingly.

"You're welcome then for saving you from such misery." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"I hope you know you're stuck with me now. I'll need a guide for surviving the hell of High school."

Peter pressed his lips together in thought. He unexpectedly shrugged and gave Annora a grin. "I guess I can live with that."

Annora laughed as they walked through the school doors before she caught what he actually said. She narrowed her eyes teasingly. "Wait, what's so wrong with being my guide?"

Peter repositioned his backpack against his back and hid a smirk. "Just don't want to be seen with a girl who gets in a scuffle with her own locker." Annora punched his shoulder in retaliation. Peter winced and rubbed the spot. "Jeez, you hit like a man."

Annora tittered and shoved Peter through their fifth period class they had together. "At least I can. I've been wondering if you were a girl for a while now Peter."

"I resent that." Peter mumbled.


	5. Chapter 5: Keeping it Real

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 5: Keeping it real

On Friday, April 18, Annora laid down on a bed of green grass near a tree in the back of the track field. She watched as the students lumbered on in groups or some by themselves. She flipped onto her back and watched as the wispy clouds flowed across the sky. She sighed, letting her fingers mess with the glossy strand of green she pulled from the ground. Peter Parker sat with his back against the lone tree. He was scribbling fiercely on a piece of paper. She sighed again and crawled over to him. She leaned down looking at his paper. Peter gave her a look. She was distracting him by watching him work.

She clicked her tongue and shook her head making Peter sigh in exasperation. He raised an eyebrow and she gave the faintest of a smile. "Question five is wrong. You mixed up the steps and got it wrong by doing step six first and five after."

"No I didn't." Peter said frowning.

Annora stopped herself from laughing knowing it would only set Peter off. She pointed to his mistake the equation and showed him what he did wrong. Peter raised his eyebrows as she went on in full detail on how to solve it and other ways to solve it too.

"Alright Atria, I just needed one. What are you? Some mathematician in disguise?" Peter retorted.

Annora rolled her eyes. "Ugh, as if…I hate math."

"But your good at it and science and art and—"

Annora cut him off waving her hand in dismissal. "I'm not. Stop exaggerating."

"I'm not," Peter said with a scoff. He put his paper down and turned more towards her. "For the five days you've been here so far you had excellent grades."

"So I'm gifted. It would seem you are too Peter. You only got that question wrong because you were rushing to finish it since you forgot about it. You really are good, brilliant really." She appraised him.

"Where are you from originally?" He asked quickly even though he reddened at her compliment.

Annora paused and stared at him nonplussed. She really didn't get him, sometimes he'll be joking other times quite or very talkative. He was the first person to truly rattle her more than she gathered he would. She settle for saying a simple short, "What?"

"You have a slight accent but I can't tell where from."

"Accent?"

Peter bobbed his head as he picked at the grass. "Yeah it kind of sounds like a mix of English and…Russian if that makes sense. It's very light and you can only hear it when you're surprised or annoyed."

Was he paying that much attention to her or was she just that susceptible? However she wasn't, she always hid her emotions or any evidences well. Well recently she hadn't been keeping her feelings in check or paying attention to what she did. Annora answered him finally after she had been silent for some time. "Uh, I've always lived here but I've always had this accent. Don't know why but I do." She decided to answer him honestly. She decided then that she would keep her answers as honest and truthful as she could without revealing anything.

Annora hesitated when she went to say something else and stopped. She sighed quietly and laid back down on the ground. She glanced around the school grounds and gambled how much longer she would have here before something crushes her small consolation here. That's what this sort of was—a consolation to her peculiar perilous life she had. She could her the faint sound of car horns and sirens in the background.

"Atria?" Peter broke Annora out of her thoughts but she dimly tried to recollect why he called her that before her memory recoiled back into her mind. The slight way her head turned told him she was listening to him. "Is something wrong?"

Annora rose to sit next to him and gave Peter a quick, nervous smiled before she held her eyes firmly on something in the distant. She deliberated on how to phrase what she felt. "I just—I'm wondering how long this will last." she finally admitted.

She reached up and twisted a strand of black hair around her index finger and continued to twist the same strand as she waited for Peter to speak. When he eventually did, she wished she hadn't have confessed anything to make everything much easier, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is if it will always be this normal."

"Normal?" He repeated the word.

She dipped her head to hide her face from him. To hide her discomfort, "Yeah, I don't usually have this type of normality." Peter could see the turn of her lips upward, "It's refreshing."

Peter took this time to see if he could ask more questions. One thing he had noticed was her lack of interest in her past or sometimes it seemed she tried to steer away from family related topics, "And your life isn't normal then?"

"I can trust you right?"

Peter looked to the ground in thought. She was allowing herself to trust him now and she was his friend now right? Who was he to say no? He gave her a careful smile and nodded. "We haven't known each other for a while but you can trust me."

Annora visibly slumped in relief. She sensed no real threat from him from the first time she met him. Besides, Pepper did tell her to let some people in but maybe she should just keep it as vague as possible without him knowing too much. Then she thought about the questions that he most certainly would ask because that's what some people did—they asked until there was no more. Particularly a certain division she works for. They always want to know, but they had certain rights to. They couldn't just accept someone without knowing the dangers they possess into SHEILD. Annora knew that they had a danger rank for each Agent put into SHEILD. Though she didn't know her rank in the risk to SHEILD. Annora smiled at Peter. "That's good to know."

Peter opened his mouth to speak but a voice interrupted him. "Parker," The person who spoke was Eugene Thompson known as 'Flash'. Annora must certain heard of him. He was the popular football player cliché. He owned up to it too with his blue eyes, capturing girl's attention along with his athletic figure. His blonde hair was short though not like most. She could see the conceitedness flow out of him it was tangible. He was looking straight at Peter haughtily not even sparing Annora a glance. She instantly didn't like him. "Hey Peter playing with your new friend?"

Peter smiled right at him though an underline of sarcasm was laced in his voice, "Hey Flash."

It appeared that Flash wasn't as stupid as most jocks Annora had seen portrayed in movies. "Got something you wanna tell me, Parker?"

Peter shook his head. "No, nothing at all."

Flash not paying attention to his words was already about to grab ahold of Peter but Annora stopped him. She leaned closer to Peter to capture Flashes attention. She strained a smiled. "Hey you're um, Flash right?"

Said jock pinned his glare on her. He smirked, "Yeah, you're that new girl huh?"

"Yeah, I am." She said unyielding to his pitiable glare. This wasn't going to end well. It was assassin against bully. All was in favor for Annora.


	6. Chapter 6: Deciding Matters

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 6: Deciding Matters

Okay, so maybe Flash did win this round. _Only, next time, I'll get him back_, Annora thought grudgingly. She sat on the steps of the entrance to the school slouched. Audrey left early home, so Annora had no walking buddy and that led to her sulking on a bench outside of the school. She admitted that arguing with Flash most likely wasn't the best idea. If she was a boy there probably wouldn't have even been words—only fists. A teacher broke up their spat. Someone sat down next to her. Looking quickly she found out it was Peter. He had his skateboard in his lap. His lip twitched. He wanted to smile but considering the circumstances he wasn't trying to die so young.

"So, fat head, huh?" He said thoroughly amused.

Annora groaned, "I could've said worse than that but I decided not to."

Peter got off the step he was sitting on and held his hand out to her. Annora thought back to the first time he offered his hand when they crashed into each other—He was blushing red and fidgeting nervously. She did feel quite bad afterwards when he was only being kind to her. She grasped his hand and he pulled her up. Peter scratched the back of his neck and looked around them before he tugged her hand so they could walk. He led her to the direction she always walks to her building. They walked in comfortable silence. Peter, Annora had found out from him, sometimes walks home or takes the bus. This was the second time they walked together.

"Thank you," Peter murmured quietly that Annora probably wouldn't have heard without her exceptional hearing, "Probably would've, uh, lost your guide if you hadn't have distracted Flash."

Annora glanced at him. He was brooding, that much she could tell. She frowned, wondering what he meant. She wouldn't have let Flash do that anyways. He'd be in a hospital if he had, "Well, I didn't want to watch as my _friend_ got pummeled by an overconfident bully."

Peter grinned and bumped his shoulder against his.. "I'm your friend now?"

Annora shrugged airily. She smiled though, giving away what she really felt. "I guess."

They past her building five minutes ago already but she didn't care. Peter would joke and laugh. He was completely different from how he was at school. Annora herself could relax from watching their surroundings. Sometime later she found herself in front of a small cozy-looking two story house. She had turned to look at it and was doing so slowly. She liked it. The small house gave off a homey aurora. Peter stood next to her gazing at—what she noticed—his house. He cleared his throat and jerk a thumb at the house, "Uh, probably not so grand but its home."

Annora nodded. "It has that homely feeling to it."

They were left in a uncomfortable silence now. Annora smiled at him and decided to just hug him. He stiffened right on contact an Annora immediately released him. She laughed utteerly embarrassed at doing that when he obviously didn't want a one, "Uh, right sorry. I mean I didn't know if we were going to shake hands, nod, or yeah…" She said.

Peter laughed making Annora agitated. Why is it that she got so jumbled around him and only him? Maybe it was because he was her first actual friend that wasn't in on her life or anywhere dealing with SHEILD. He shook his head, "If you wanted a hug you should have told me Atria. I get it." He then gave her a hug, lifting her off the ground.

Annora narrowed her eyes at him. He was making fun of her. When did he get so bold? _When you decided to joke with him_, a voice said from out of thin air. Ah, the voice was back. Her conscious was surprisingly witty. Annora heard a creak from the front door and snapped her head to it. It wasn't hard to look in that direction since her cheek was pressed against his shoulder. Standing inside of the house looking out the doors window stood a lady. She was about in her early fifties aging gracefully. Her brown hair was untidy and her apron messy. Her brown eyes were glued to Annora and Peter. Annora complained when Peter decided to spin her around in a circle. She laughed and messed up his hair.

He grinned putting her down and raised an eyebrow, "You messed up my hair."

Annora forgot about the lady then and smirked. Peter's usual disheveled hair was messier now. She snatched his skateboard from him and stood on it, "I don't know Peter it's kind of an improvement now."

She then handed him back his skateboard. When he reached to grab it Annora reached up and slowly kissed his cheek. His cheek being soft made Annora want to kiss it again. She moved away and watched Peter's reaction. He was blushing alright. He opened his mouth then closed it a second later. He looked at the ground and murmured, "What-What was that for?"

"Just wanted to see how many shades of red your face can get. The results are promising."

Peter scowled at her. He then rolled his eyes at her jab at making fun of him. Mostly likely she did it because of how he was blushing and awkward around her the first three days at school. Annora smiled fondly at him. He was cute. _Wait, what,_ Annora paused in thought, _When did I start thinking he was cute? _Great, now she thinks he's cute. Actually he was good-looking but people didn't see that because he was always keeping to himself. Annora sighed, "Well I'll have to go now before it starts getting dark."

Peter drooped exactly like she was doing at the prospect of leaving each other. He groaned, "Yeah you probably should."

Annora smiled at him as she walked backwards trying to delay parting with him as much as he did too, "Bye Peter."

Peter was lost in thought contemplating if he should do what he wanted to do. He pursed his lips then and walked careful measured steps to her. Annora confusingly stopped her backwards walking as he neared. His cheeks colored before he grabbed her face gently and placed his lips on hers. Her throat suddenly felt tight. She wasn't used to being kissed even on the cheek. Only her father and Pepper did that. Theirs was nurturing and maternal but Peter's warm lips on her cheeks felt startlingly endearing and affectionate. She then felt this bizarre tingling feeling like explosive sparks running from the base of her lower back, spreading to her arms and to her fingertips. She was very happy he couldn't see her blush since the disguise obscured it.

Peter lifted his lips from her cheek and observed her gingerly. He had finally broken her carefully collected mask. Of course he'd seen her smile and laugh or scowl but he had never seen her so…dumbfounded. Her surprise shattered and she was sudden composed like before, "I guess I had that coming."

Peter laughed and gently hugged her, "Thanks for being my friend. If you ever need me, I'll be there alright?" He then pinned his eyes to hers earnestly.

She nodded and he let go of her. She beamed at him, "Yeah."

"Bye." Peter smirked.

She waved at him before glancing at his door. She flushed. The lady she had forgotten now had company. An older man stood there, both trying to act discreet like they hadn't watched them. When Annora made it to the building she couldn't help but think about how fast it took for that to occur. They only knew each other for five day and her she was giving and receiving kisses—even if only on the cheek. _This is going too fast_, she thought. She found herself on the ledge on the rooftop again like every other night with her arms around her legs. She usually came her to think, and all she had been thinking about recently was Peter. She didn't blame herself since he was in her life now.

Why did he matter anyway? What was he to her, or is going to be to her? This growing affection toward him wouldn't be good. No not at all. She liked how he could make her feel normal and happy. It wasn't like she wasn't happy before but recently things were going south and will keep going this way. She could feel it. She was slowly being compromised by him and she found that she didn't mind. He was in her life for better or for worse but she would make the best of it.

"I decided it mattered," She whispered tightening her arms around her legs.


	7. Chapter 7: Daddy Dearest

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 7: Daddy Dearest

Light poured into Annora's room effectively waking her up. The shutters on the windows in Annora's room opened letting light pour in. She squirmed in her bed trying to shrug off the covers. She groaned in defeat before her movements ceased.

"Good morning Ms. Stark, it is six am and the temperature is sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit outside, clear skies and fairly windy. Today's date is April 26th on a Saturday. May I suggest a walk to the park?" SIA greeted.

Annora mumbled before throwing the covers off her. She sat up with her feet dangling off the platform. She yawned then answered SIA, "A workout sounds better, thank you SIA."

Annora took a quick shower before changing into her workout clothes. She clambered down the rock climbing way since she hadn't been using it for a while. After using the elevator she strode over to the only locked door on this floor. She tap the number one and moved her finger across the glass screen entering the access code. The door slid open allowing her to enter. Annora did stretches before running on the treadmill. The pace was set on six and slowly increasing. She ran for thirty minutes straight before she got off. Annora went to the weights and lifted one ton. Everything in her gym was made to fit her standards—curtsey of SHEILD. By the time it was eleven am Annora's body was starting gloss with perspiration. Annora took a moment to calm the essence buzzing through her body. She sat on a bench near her and looked at her hands. They were quivering. Looking closer, Annora could see faint bits of light pulsing inside her hands. She sighed, tracing her right palm. She has no blood and no heart yet she has other internal organs like humans. What was she?

All her answers derive from her mother. However her mother's gone. She left no clue either. Annora's jaw clenched. She has nothing to start on, but she had to try soon. She stopped for a rest but now she had to look again. Hopefully this time she could find something, even if it was insignificant, because then she could say she at least found _something_. Annora looked at herself in the wall mirror behind her. The girl reflected was curled up on the bench like invisible enemies were coming after her and she had nothing to defend herself. Annora wanted nothing more than to reach across the mirror and slap her for how small and defenseless she looked. Better yet she could just slap herself than fail at attempting to slap her reflection.

She stayed like in that position, frowning at her reflection for who knows how long before SIA alerted her of someone entering the building without her permission. She perked up. There was only one person she knew how could surpass her systems. Annora bounded off the bench and loped to the first floor from the stairs. She never even gave the person enough time to acknowledge her before she hugged him. Her father made a sound like _Whoa_, but after a second his arms folded around her, and they stayed that way, in a heartfelt embrace.

"You plan on letting go of me yet, kid?"

Annora shook her head, her grip on him tauter. She smiled, traces of her earlier mood gone. "I missed you. Oh my gods, I really did."

Her father chuckled and had to forcibly pull her off of him so he could breathe properly. He smirked. "Yeah, I thought so."

"Now I remember why I didn't miss you," She said huffing. She eyed him up and down. He wore a stylish black shirt and jeans that—knowing her father—cost hundreds of dollars. His dark brown, almost black, hair was preened. And he had his famous Balbo beard she found so ridiculous. Though he would say it was in the 'In' now. He was still the same, except now, he had the shrapnel removed from his chest. He had kept the arc reactor in his chest though. But that was given since he _would_ have been left with a large gaping hole in his sternum, so the arc reactor stayed. "What's the occasion?"

He shrugged, mindlessly skimming through the magazines on the table between two couches. When he found one with is name on the cover he gave a noise of approval and flicked through the pages to find his section of the magazine. "I miss my daughter."

There was no indication of deceit in his answer, yet Annora felt that it wasn't the reason he came for. She sat on the arm rest of the couch next to him. She figured that he would just come out and say what he wanted since he always would. She sat there quiet as he read through paragraphs about him. She shifted and played with her fingers. One thing that never changed was her submission to her father. She always listened to him. Never a day she wouldn't because as a child he didn't exactly set her straight about responsibilities, behavior, or how to act like a lady—Pepper did—but she always sought for his approval. And she never got it until a few years back. He loved her. She knew and he did too, but with her father—he liked to keep things closed. Annora did the same thing. Maybe it was inherited?

"They're still going on about you."

Annora gripped the arm rest, momentarily forgetting that she was still there. Lost in thought again. Her head turned towards he father, tilted in confusion. "What?" She said eloquently as ever.

Tony Stark raised the magazine in his hand in her direction. "The lost, oh wait, its _runaway_ now, daughter of Tony Stark still not found." He turned his body to face her. His eyes held that fatherly sternness now. "Which I've been meaning to ask was, how much longer are you staying in hiding?"

A muscle in Annora's cheek twitched. She tapped her fingers against the soft leather she sat on in trepidation. The invisible rope holding the dispute from happening was twisting and ripping steadily. "Until the danger's gone." She finally answered.

Her father nodded but he took in deep breaths as if he was calming himself. He leaned forward. "This is what happens when you get into stuff like this Annora."

"I knew what was implied when I joined SHEILD."

"Did you, really? How old where you then, huh, when you decided to join SHIELD? Ten wasn't it?"

"You looked through my private files, didn't you?" Annora accused. The rope was so close to ripping now.

He laughed sarcastically, "Yeah, I did. You're _my_ daughter, I think I have the right to."

"They were confidential."

"And it's illegal to hire a ten year old girl to kill people." He yelled now, standing up.

Annora stayed clam, her voice not wavering. "That only applies to humans."

"And you think you're not because you don't have blood—because you don't die like humans?" He scoffed.

"I have different biological properties that not even you can explain. I'm not even possible, dad. The rules don't pertain to me for that very reason. Yeah, they had to make an official contract on me having the same rights as humans but my age never meant anything because we didn't know anything."

"Annora," her father said softer now. He was closer to her now, holding her hands in his. "That's just it. You're my daughter and whoever or whatever your…mother was is half of you and I'm the other half. You have one half of human in you and _that_ applies."

Annora was conflicted like she was literally struggling internally. Every fiber of her body told her she wasn't human and yet what her father said was logical. The strangest part was how accepting Pepper and her dad was of this. How they didn't look at her like she was some alien, when in fact she sort of was alien. It helped Annora for a while until they found out Annora still had undiscovered abilities. They thought that there was only those abilities she had and that was it but no fate had more to give her. Annora shuddered. "But which side is more dominant? I think we all know that question right?"

Tony shook his head unyielding. He came her for a reason. "Look Annora you…I think you should stay away from SHEILD for now on, okay?"

Annora froze. She stared wide-eyed at him in disbelief. Was he serious? She couldn't leave SHEILD. Not even if she wanted to. It just wasn't…possible. She devoted seven years of her life wasted on SHEILD and she wasn't just going to quit. "No."

Her father wasn't fazed. "Look at what they've done to you Nori. They trained you at the age of ten, Nori, _ten_. And you killed. Killing isn't an easy thing to do. Every time you kill a little piece of you dies inside. I know you Annora."

"Like you haven't killed—"

He cut her off and harshly said, "Yes, I have but Annora those were bad people and still then I didn't want to do it. You didn't see yourself Annora…in Manhattan, you were ruthless."

Annora was shaking then. No, she didn't want to hear anything about Manhattan. She forced herself to say something. "They were killing innocents. They were aliens."

"And you are too, aren't you?" Tony asked her. She reared back in shock. He continued. "You said so, you think your alien. Does that mean I-I should kill you so cruelly like you did to them?"

"I'm trained to kill. I know what I was doing, so don't you tell me what is wrong or not." She said angrily, hurt by him.

"Yeah, you were trained Annora. But that doesn't make you an adult. You're still considered a child and you are. They train you and make you kill thinking it doesn't affect you but it does."

"What are you talking about? I'm completely fine." Annora yelled, her hands waving in the air. "And you _don't_ know me." She glared at her father shaking her head. "Where were you?" She asked wounded. Her eyes watering. "Where were you when I was hurt from falling down the stairs when I was young? Where were you when there was scary thunderstorms? Where were you when I was taken out of school and put into homeschooling because the kids bullied me? They called me freak, dad. _Freak_. They were so horrible and I wanted you to be there and comfort me. Those nights when you left to go get drunk and bed girls, I was home forgotten. I stayed every night waiting for you to come home. And you weren't there!" She whispered brokenly.

"Annora, I know what I did was wrong and I'm _so_ sorry. And if I could go back and change it I would make sure you were okay and you never joined SHEILD." Her father said earnestly.

"That's just it Tony!" Annora shouted getting up from the arm rest. He eyes gleamed silver in fury. "I wish I could have not joined SHEILD but I did and now I'm stuck because once in SHEILD, always in SHEILD. The enemies you make are forever. That's what I'm afraid of. If I let my guard down and they come a-and hurt or kil—" She stopped short. She couldn't even say the word right now. "I can't lose you, or Pepper. It hard as it is going to school. What if they find me and hurt someone I talk to at school? I just can't quite because if I do—I'll have no one else to help keep everyone I care about safe."

Silence, that's what surrounded them after her confession. She stared at her father. Fear seen plain as day on her face. Annora never did show her feelings like fear or desperation but she was now. Seconds later her father spoke, "You know Annora, and you can talk to me about these things. I know I'm not Coulson but I would listen. And you're not alone. I would help you."

He left Annora like that. With a kiss on top of her head, he left her standing in the middle of the living room. The trembling had increased. He shouldn't have mentioned anything about Phil. She didn't need to be reminded that he wasn't here. She would rather pretend her was so she could just pretend to be happy too. He was gone though. Her S.O. was gone and it was her fault. The only person who didn't judge her and think anything was wrong about her logic. He helped her so much when she first started out as a trainee. He's gone. Annora was smoking as though she was dipped into lava. Hot, she felt unbelievably hot. Her hands clenched and unclenched. The shaking had always been an issue for Annora. The first time was when she had enough of her father never paying attention to her and one day she just exploded in anger like raw scorching heat. She could feel the same kind of breakdown happening now. Annora was quick to make it into the safe room. She locked the one-foot thick door. The room was built for these sort of panics she gets. She could feel the trembling in her hands and face, so intense now it felt like shocks were seizing her whole body up and locking her joints in. 'Bursts', that's what her father called them.

She hadn't had one of these in years, since she was twelve. She hadn't felt this kind of spontaneous burst in years and she liked it that way. The first rupture starts like spindles of white-gold fire. She breaths in deeply and thinks, _I will not cry_. The second spasm happens and she grits her teeth, keeping in the yells of pain. Searing agony came with the third surge of white energy hammering from her. The lights above flickered. The fourth energy surge was bigger than the last. Boiling, she was boiling. It felt like hot-lead was poured down her throat and she couldn't breathe or _wouldn't_ breathe because each breath hurt. The lights broke and all she saw was sparks of electricity before everything was black. Only now, light came from her. Her clothes were singed off and she curled down into the corner of the room.

_I will not cry_, she thought.


	8. Author's Note

Author's Note: Alright so I'm going to talk about SOA(Scintilla of Aberrant) since some of you might be confused or are confused on where in the timeline of 'The Amazing Spiderman' I started on. Annora is currently in the month of April and parts of TAS starts in June. Right now I just really want to show Annora's and Peter's growing relationships and with other's. I also want to reflect a bit more on Annora and her past too. I'm basing this in the Marvel cinematic universe and since—sadly—Spiderman isn't in this universe I want you to just bear with me. This _is_ a Fan fiction and as such, are made to just read and enjoy. I will _try_ though, to fit this story in and make it as believable and correctly corresponding to anything dealing with Marvel or TAS. This is my first story and I'm am going to make mistakes like grammar, dialogue, etc.

I also wanted to talk about things concerning my OC, Annora. I don't want her to seem perfect because she's not. I really hope she doesn't seem like a Mary-sue because I am working on her growing character. Annora is going through a rough time right now and she tries to hide it because she doesn't like show emotions but as seen she freely does with Peter for _some_ reason. I think some of you guys might know why. She is very prideful and in no shape humble—a trademark Stark personality. She can be arrogant and catty but like all ignorant souls, she'll learn about being caring and careful and that she's not invincible. She may think she's not like thinking she is but she does by the way she handles things later on as the story continues. Next chapter will be posted tomorrow or the next day. Thank you guys so much for reading, reviewing, and of course following and favorites!


	9. Chapter 8: Dizzy Spell

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 8: Dizzy spell

Atria's mood was like a whiplash to Peter. She came into first period perfectly fine, but as the morning went on she was quiet and miserable looking. It was something he never saw from her before. Then when lunch came she was perfectly fine. It confused him so much since only just an hour ago she was in a bad mood. At lunch they both got in line and got their food. They ate inside of the cafeteria this time but at the back of the cafeteria for privacy. Peter watched Atria shifted the corn in her plate around with her spoon. She was silent again. Peter kept his mouth shut, not really knowing what to do.

Ten minutes into watching her mess with her food and keeping her head down Peter had enough. He slapped his pizza down on his plate and push it away. He put his elbow on the table and messed with the loose string on his hoodie's cuff. There was one hole in each cuff made from him so he could put his thumb through. Peter filtered through his mind on how to start a conversation with the obviously-not-in-the-mood Atria. He settled for being direct with her since she always told him to be like that with her. "What happened?"

Atria didn't look up but answered his question with some indecision. "Just…stuff. My dad came for a visit and it didn't go well."

"You, uh, don't live with your father?" Atria shook her head at the question. He then asked, "So you live with your mom?"

Atria's face was devoid of any emotions as she said, "My mother's dead."

"I-I'm sorry—I didn't mean to—uh," Peter stumbled over his apology.

Atria smiled forcefully. "It's alright Peter. She died when I was born so…" She trailed off not knowing what else to say.

Peter cleared his throat and leaned forward on the table. "You live by yourself?"

"Yeah, it's okay though. Got it certified and all to live alone. So, no worries."

"Must be lonely." Peter added a bit concerned.

Atria looked at her spoon sadly. He mused that she was thinking exactly that. He felt a little bad for saying it but he was concerned. Peter lived with his uncle and aunt and he wasn't isolated even considering that he was alone at school. She sighed. "It can be." She faked a smile and asked, "How about you? Do you live with um, your parents?"

Peter swallowed and gave her a weak smile. He looked down at the table messing with the string again. "Uh, they died. I live with my Uncle Ben and Aunt May since I was a kid."

Atria reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his. Warmth poured from the small act of comfort and Peter felt like all his sorrow was shaping into acceptance with his parents death like a stone being smoothed out in a river. Peter never really liked to talk about his parents but he found himself telling Atria for some ridiculous reason. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Peter breathed out and he really meant it.

Annora sighed as she swung on the swings in the park. Peter was on her right side swinging away. After school Peter suggested going to the park nearest to their school. He was like a child when it came to swings, trying to swing the highest. Annora rolled her eyes fondly. He was going to fall off. "If you fall off, I'm going to laugh at you."

Peter scoffed, "I won't."

Annora didn't say anything else. She slumped a little in the seat and laid her head back looking at the blue sky. There was strips of clouds, like they were broken off pieces of silver paint harshly swiped across the blue canvas. Annora missed it. While she stared peacefully at the clouds stuck in wonder, Peter tried and failed at jumping off the swing and landing. His sudden thump on the ground made Annora cut her eyes from the sky to him. She stopped her mindless swinging and quickly made her way to Peter. She didn't know if she should be pleased that he fell so she could say _I told you_ so or not. Peter had slammed face first into the dirt. He flipped himself on his back and stared at Annora humiliated.

"Can we pretend that never happened?"

"Nah," Annora shook her head. "Wanna tell me why your face was hugging the ground?"

"The ground looked so…lonely and I, well, just couldn't help but fall for the ground." He explained weakly.

The young Stark stared blankly at him. Several seconds went by before her lip twitched and she pealed into laughter. Peter did too. She sank down to the ground as waves of laughter emitted from both teenagers. Neither understanding why it was so funny. People around them enjoying the park looked at them like they were crazy. Annora finally was able to calm herself and smirked at Peter. "Idiot."

Peter sat up with arms on his knees. He breathing ragged from their laughing fit. He nudged her with his shoulder. He smirked at her. "I'll be your idiot."

Annora raised her eyebrows. "Wow, Peter, was that you trying to flirt?"

Peter instantly blushed and shook his head. "N-no, I was just playing around."

Annora snickered, "Yeah, okay."

She stood up and gave him a hand up. Annora grabbed her backpack and handed him his. They were closer to Peter's house, just ten minutes walking. Annora didn't really like walking to school since it took forever for her to get there. It was n of the reasons she woke up so early, or was it just early to her? Annora didn't have a car here. She didn't bring one because she honestly thought she was to stay in the building forever. Well, not forever, but it seemed like it. _School is a blessing and a curse_, she thought sadly. Peter's house was six blocks away from her building. She wasn't looking forward to walking at that. She probably was going to call a cab like she did last time she walked to Peter's house. She walked only half of it until she got fed up and called a cab. This time though—as Peter and she walked up to the front door—Peter invited her to come. It was the same brownstone house as last time she had been standing outside of it giving and receiving kisses on the cheek. Annora forced those thoughts about the innocent cheek kisses away. Peter opened the door and allowed her to go in first.

"Do you always have your front door open?" Annora said alarmed after he shut and locked the door. Anyone could have easily came in and steal something or worse—hurt someone. This was New York of course, where the crime rates were up.

"Nope, My Aunt usually unlocks the door after school sometimes. Plus, this neighborhood is usually quiet. Why concerned for me?" Peter teased her.

"This is New York, well the suburban part."

Peter shook his head chuckling. Annora ignored him in a childish manner and decided on looking anywhere but at him. Straightaway she recalled saying the house was small but it actually was fairly spacious. They were at the entrance and there were stairs on the right once coming out of the vestibule and straight ahead was a hallway which had one entry into what probably was the kitchen or dining room. A door was on the right—next to a chair and a small bookcase where a small plant laid on top. Annora guessed it lead to a small closet or basement. Annora realized what she was doing; her job entailed assessing their positions. Peter grabbed her hand, leading her into the living room. She eyed the picture above the fireplace. It as a picture of the same older man she saw with Peter's aunt inside prying on them from last Saturday. The living room was roomy as well. Dark curtains were pushed aside to let the light through. A reasonably sized flat screen was further back faced to let people watch comfortably from the long white couch that were placed by the windows. A small red one-seat couch next to the white couch. Peter let her gaze around the living room. She walked up to the fireplace, eyes enraptured ny the pictures. Peter followed. He was tugged by her hand still clasped in his.

"Is that you?" Annora asked, curiously pointing to the picture of a small boy holding hands with Peter's younger looking aunt.

Peter nodded. "Yeah."

"Aw, you're so adorable."

"Thanks…" Sarcasm, ah Peter's getting more and more comfortable around her.

"Oh, Peter is this Atria?" A voice interrupted Annora from retorting. They both jumped at the unsuspected person, caught in surprise. Annora swiveled around to face whoever it was. Peter's aunt smiled curiously at her. Annora went ramrod stiff. She was mentally cursing herself for being so naïve to let her defenses down. She was impeccable at always being ready for anything.

_Expect for—nope_, she cut her thoughts off there. She defiantly wasn't going to think about it.

"Uh, yes ma'am, Hello" Annora said high-strung. Gods, she was better than this. She didn't know if she was supposed to shake her hand or just nod.

The woman decided for her and went along and hugged Annora. Annora gave a half-surprised gasp in shock, trying to fight off the instinctual urge to shove the woman off her. Her father, Pepper and amazingly—Peter— were the only ones she could fully allow to even hug her or touch her for that matter. "It so nice to meet you, dear." The warm welcoming calm Annora enough to pat her back in return. Peter's aunt let her go and smiled. "I'm May Parker but you can call me Aunt May."

"Oh, um okay." Was Annora's response.

"Hey, Aunt May." Peter said at Annora's side again. He touched her arm to soothe her. He knew about her issues with others touching her.

"Hello Peter how was school today?"

"It was great." He cast a careful glance at Annora. She made school more tolerable besides going to his physics class.

"Supper's almost done, you'll be staying for supper right?" She offered to Annora hopefully.

"Yes Mrs. Par—"Annora cut off and reconsidered after Aunt May squinted her eyes at her warningly. "Aunt May."

She nodded her head approvingly and left to the kitchen through the dining area after saying she needed to check on the food. Annora shivered. "Your Aunt can be scary when she wants to."

Peter just laughed. "Wanna head upstairs to my room."

"Oh, Peter!" Annora said theatrically, her hand against her chest. "This is all so sudden."

"Tis not my lady, your face a beauty—eyes the palest ice blue, not one man can endeavor such exquisiteness but the finest such as I." Peter played along.

"Wow, that was actually good, Peter." Annora said frivolous.

He shrugged. "I try."

He led the way to the stair and went up, hauling her alongside. He opened the first door in front of them and went in. Annora followed. Peter threw his backpack to the wall by his door and chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry about the mess. I, uh, asked you to come unplanned so I didn't really get time to clean."

Annora nodded as he quickly gather stray clothes on the floor and bed. As he tidied the room up, Annora scrutinized his room filing it to memory. His closet was wide open, clothes messily hanged and shoes piling up. She smiled faintly at that. She remembered doing that before Pepper came in and complained about how unladylike and improper it was. There were skateboards hung up above the drawer on the right of his closet. His twin bed was fit against the wall in the middle. The bed sheets blue—his favorite color. Books were scattered all around his room; some on the chair by the window, in the chest next to the chair and on the short bookcase on the other side of the chair. Posters and pictures hung on the walls and there was one in particular of Einstein on the door to his bathroom that Annora liked. There was a desk and chair across Peter's bed complete with a computer and all. She spotted Peter's beloved camera on the desk and ran her finger across the lenses rim.

"It's very you." Annora commented at last.

Peter sat on his bed leaning back. He patted the spot next to him invitingly. Annora rolled her eyes and submitted. She sighed, relaxing. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just asking," He shrugged. "You were moody today. I just don't know when to prepare for your next silent treatment."

Annora winced. "I'm uh…s-sorr-sorry about that."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"The stumbling just a second ago."

"I'm not good at saying I'm apologetic. I don't usually have to. I don't want to cause it means admitting I'm wrong. You should feel privileged, Peter, to receive such a confession from me."

He snorted. "Wasn't even a drastic confession."

"What like my unwavering love for you?" Annora replied smirking.

Peter's mocha eyes sliced into Annora's. The corners of his mouth tilted up making Annora's essence pulse warmer. She felt that weird feeling like last time coming back again. "Maybe—'

Annora seriously had no idea how Peter got so… not him or more open with her so soon. She laid perfectly still. Peter sat up slouched over her. Dark brown hair messy as ever in that stylish bed-head look he pulls off so well. All of Annora's rational thoughts liquefied and swept off her. Only one ridiculous teenage-like thought replayed like a record.

She wanted to kiss Peter. At this exact moment.

"—you just want something else…" He murmured, finishing his sentence at last.

"Like what?" Annora breathed.

He was directly above her now. His face leveled with hers. His eyes inviting her. It felt like she was in some sort of dazed spell. He finally oh, so slowly leaned closer. His lips were right there—just inches away but too far for Annora. He licked his lips before he tilted his mouth down and—

"Peter, Atria!" Aunt May's cut through the strong force dazing Annora from all sensible thoughts. Just like that Annora sat up, Peter moving in harmony with her seeming to snap out of whatever phase he was momentarily in. The stumbled away from each other like they were blazing hot. "Supper's ready."


	10. Chapter 9: Awkward Dinner's

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 9: Awkward Dinners

Believe it or not, Annora had never once been in an awkward situation before, unless she counted the numerous mornings when she had unfortunately met with her father's latest flings. Some of the women even had the gall to upright get snooty with her. Annora was tactless when it came to situations involving those idiot women. Most of the time she outright ignored them until she needed to get involved. Annora seated herself across from Aunt May, and next to Peter. The man from the picture, Peter's uncle, Ben was next to May. After a brief introduction, May brought out the food. Annora smelled the steamy pork chops aroma and sighed. It's been awhile since she ate a regular family cooked meal such as this one.

"Get we are, Pork chops with mash potatoes and sweet corn." May said smiling. She put all the food in the middle in everyone reach. Peter and Ben were already trying to reach for the food but May slapped their hands away. She gave them a stern look. "Ladies first boys."

Ben laughed while Peter gave a sheepish grin. He didn't look at her though. The dinner was tense and seemed like it would stay that way until May asked, "So, how long have you been here Atria?"

Annora looked up from her chewing. She considered the question before answering. "Been here for a couple of months but just recently started school a week ago. Then I uh, met Peter here and we just…hit it off I guess you could say."

"How are your grades?" Came Ben's question.

"Ben!" May reprimanded.

"Best in the school." Annora said with a little haughtiness.

Ben hummed, giving Peter and glance. Both seemed to communicate in some weird man telepathic way. Annora decided to ignore it for now. She would and probably never would understand men and their ways in certain areas. Ben continued his prying. "Do you live around here?"

"Yes, a couple of blocks away," She replied.

"You have a job?"

"Don't need one."

"Ah, your parents right?"

"No, I support myself." Annora gritted out. She was getting tired of his stupid questions. She knew what he was doing. He was testing her. She was happy he would do such a thing for Peter —how much he cared for him. But she didn't like it when it happens to her. Annora hates it when people test her. It makes her feel like she had to do the best when she doesn't need to.

"Alright," May interrupted. Ben still seemed as if he wanted to ask Annora what she meant. May clapped her hands together and strained a smile for both teenagers. Obviously, Ben's little questionnaire was irksome to her. "I'll bring out the dessert. Everyone's finished right?"

"Actually, May, I think it's time I leave." Annora said getting up and pushing the chair in.

"Oh, are you sure?" May said unhappily, her lips twitching downwards.

"Yes," Annora managed to whisper and she stormed out the house. She shut the door as quiet as she could but only managed to close it harder than she intended to.

Annora only got to walk a couple of strides before the door banged open and she heard footsteps stomping on the sidewalk trying to catch up to her. A warm hand grasped her arm and jerked her back. "Wait."

Annora paused from trying to get out of Peter's hold. She looked up into his eyes and regretted it. His eyes held confusion and worry in them. Annora bit her lip. Peter's eyes flicked down to her lips then back to her eyes. He sighed. He ran a hand through her hair messing it up in the process. "I'm sorry about my uncle. He um, is usually a nice person."

"Its fine," Annora muttered.

"It's not," Peter stressed, his eyes apologetic. "He's just having a bad day."

"Apology accepted alright?" Annora laughed. She playfully punched his shoulder. "Don't worry about me. How are you anyways?"

Peter's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's only polite to ask if you did." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine," he answered hesitantly at first then he smiled. The tension was still in the air. Both not knowing what to say or do. Annora was thinking about the almost kiss. How her body seemed to like his leaning over her. His smile doing all kinds of things to her. She wanted to slap herself out of those thoughts but they kept reappearing every time.

Annora stepped back from him and smiled innocently like she wasn't thinking about kissing him. The cold breeze blew across her face. It was getting colder but the icy air felt like nothing to her. She jerked a thumb behind her shoulder. "I should probably go now."

Peter nodded on agreement. "Yeah, you-um you should."

Annora waved. "Bye then."

"Bye."

* * *

When Annora made it to the building, she immediately wanted to just lay down and sleep the rest of the night. All she managed to do was shrug off her shoes and backpack. They fell to the floor and she flopped onto the couch. Relaxing into the smooth leather, she smiled pleased with the comfortable couch. This was what she needed since this day was not in her favor. Annora's smile got wipe off her face then. She knew when she was being unreasonable. She wasn't going to apologize because Ben was nosing into her life. She was just glad she didn't do or say anything that would have caused Peter and her friendship to collapse.

Now that she was thinking about that. She didn't like the normal life as much as she thought she would've. All her life was full of life threat's and fighting and on the good occasion—when life decided to not give her lemons—rest. Annora hated hiding. It was just like undercover operations and she hated those. She was more of the _bomb, bullets, and fight _type of girl. Then at the same time she loathed it when some got injured or…worse. Annora groaned. She needed some to occupy her before she gets depressed and have Pepper come by all Mamma bearlike. Gods know, if that happen her father would most likely stop by. She still hasn't been talking to him.

A sharp ring, followed along by a very uncharacteristically startled Annora falling off the couch, sounded. Annora quickly got up and an audible_ slinkt _alarmed Annora just how startled she was. Warmth pulsed from her wrists and Annora sighed. Luckily, she didn't harm herself unintentionally. Annora glared at her pocket before yanking her phone out of it. Her glare switched to an almost ecstatic expression as she read the text message.

**We need you to come in early –W**

"Finally!" Annora exhaled in relief. The most unexpected expected message for her particular predicament was now cured.


	11. Chapter 10: The First Indications

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 10: The first Indications of Complications

"Nice of you to finally ring me in," Annora said sarcastically though secretly it was very nice. She could now do something to keep her mind off things she doesn't want to think about. She was in one of the many debriefing rooms at the nearest SHEILD base sitting on the Holotable. Her standard SHEILD uniform was on her, fit tightly and showing off her curves. Annora's hair was in a neat bun. Only her bangs were out and swept to the right side of her face. Her rare eyes gleaming in anticipation.

The man who she was talking to didn't even spare her a glance. His eyes remained on the tablet in his hands. Annora rolled her eyes. Such a nice man he is. Agent Walker was her, as someone could say, Debreifer. He wasn't a field agent but more of a desk analyst. He calculated routes in-and-out of field agent's missions and gave procedures on how to go through with their mission. Walker set the tablet down after a while of what she guessed was serious reading. He instead looked at the tablet in thought. Annora heaved a sigh before messing around with the Holotable. It looked like this would take a while.

Annora let the Holotable scan her gun that formally rested in her thigh holster. She brought up the hologram of the gun and played around with it. What was she going to tell Peter and Audrey when she got back? Knowing Audrey, she would mostly likely wave it away but Peter wouldn't. He was too clever.

"You are not supposed to play around with the Holotable." A stern voice brought Annora out of her little world.

Annora narrowed her eyes at Walker before going back to trifling with the Hologram. "Oh, are you talking to me? I'm sorry. I didn't know," Annora said innocently.

"Clearly," Walker said firmly. He cleared his throat gaining Annora's attention.

She then stood rigid and cleared her face of all immaturity. Putting her gun back when it belonged, she crossed her arms and eyed Walker. "So what's my mission?"

Walker moved to the Holotable and brought up files. About a dozen or so documents splayed across the Holotable. One in specific caught her interest. The documents title read, **TRITON**. Annora's eyebrow crumpled in confusion. Why in the hell would SHEILD show her this? Triton was gone; ever since the Second World War. SHEILD made sure of that. "What this?" She asked though it was obvious what it was.

"Triton," Walker's gruff voice answered simply. "There has been recent calamities that caused concern for us. Ideally, we would make certain we absolutely knew it was true before we send you in but we don't have enough time. The last time we _thought_ we found one of their bases it was gone."

"SHEILD thinks a completely _dead_ organization is back?" Annora asked rhetorically. Her eyes flashed silver then the color was gone the next. "I'm sorry if I find that not completely real, wait actually—no, I'm not."

"Or simply scattered." Walker brought up the location on the Holotable. The hologram of a rainforest flickered to life. Walker's grey eyes were grave as he said, "Because we need you on this, I'm going to ignore on how you know about Triton when it's classified and absolutely unknown to all agents except level twelve. You're the only agent capable of surviving this if it the facts is true."

"Oh, I get it. Sending me in a completely unknown territory with completely unidentified threat to find something that might not even be there." Annora didn't even wince at her mistake; she was Annora stark after all. She hacked into SHEILDS files the first day she accepted the job.

"Agent Reed—"

Annora narrowed her eyes at Walker. She hated being called that—her mother's stupid last name. Before she claimed her father's last name just a few years ago, she went by Reed. It was a fake last name; it had to be since her mother's name didn't match it. Or maybe it was just her being overly suspicious. Cutting him off, she barked, "Stark, its Stark now."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." He slammed her words from before right back to her.

"Just tell me what my damn mission is already."

Walker and her association was strained, if could even call it strained.

* * *

The hum of the Quinjet calmed Annora. She was in some familiar, something _she_ is used to. Though Annora didn't need to ride in a Quinjet to get to her destination—she had her own means of transportation she yearned to use—the whereabouts of 'Hades' was in Sumatra, Indonesia. A total of twelve long boring hours. With a regular plane, it would take a day or so, but she was in the Quinjet. She felt like laughing in irony. Here she is on a job that requires extensive traveling but never once went sightseeing. Annora didn't even know the definition of vacation before she went into hiding. She wouldn't mind having one now, especially since she was heading to an island with rainforests. Annora loved rainforests. She liked the idea of chipping exotic animals and the humid hot air. It was only at places like those that she would stay to feel the warmth. Sadly, Annora didn't do well with extreme heat. Her own body was warmed by her essence which was basically like gasoline to a car and overheating under stress and high temperatures and she probably would go 'Boom'. Luckily Annora never found out what would happen to her by being in extended hours of heat.

Annora could relate to the rainforest in some strange way. She was unpredictable—much like the constant changing of the wet weather to the creatures found there. She didn't relate to the others but some part of her hoped that if her mother had been alive that they would've been in complete coordination with each other, maybe not at all on the same page but pretty darn close. In a way she could see the odd people in this world similar to her too. One thing that separated her from the rest was her view on the world—which was true. Her eyes saw what others couldn't. She saw life in everything, how it pulsed much like her essence and that gave her some comfort to know she wasn't so utterly different. It was a white vibrant wisp of stands connected through the person or living thing. Sometimes she would watch in fascination as the life put on a show like dancing little strands of grass in the wind; it was like her own little show.

When Annora was little and didn't know how to control her sight, she had cried to her father about the annoying white fluffs, of course that was when her father and Pepper knew something wasn't quite normal about her. Annora could see the data being transmitted out of the phones, computer, laptops, just about anything with technology. The small little numbers and pixels from a sent picture. It was so confusing for little Annora making her say in her room all the time. She later could control what was being sent from the object and just about control it if she wished. Annora didn't exactly know how to do it right still. She didn't really want to learn how to. She envied others who could keep their emotions in check because she couldn't sometimes—not when it came to people she cared about.

"Agent Reed?" The pilot's voice interrupted her ruminate.

Annora suppressed the urge to throttle him senselessly for calling her that and said, "Yes?"

"You might want to get everything ready if you haven't. ETA fifteen minutes to Sumatra."

Annora nodded though he wouldn't see it. "Right, thanks."

She already had everything she needed. Two guns with four clips, throwing knives and other needed things on her belt. She traded out her custom SHEILD suit for her own personal one she designed. It was a black Kevlar jumpsuit with white accents. It fitted nicely with the black leather boots she wore that were just two inches below her knees. Her hair was in a tight high ponytail—not a single hair in her way. She couldn't allow any mess ups on this mission if it was Triton. Thinking back on what she remembered reading about Triton, it was some cracked up organization that deals with experimenting on 'Aliens'. If this was Annora about one or two years ago she would have snorted at the idea of aliens, but now she was just waiting for them to announce every other mythical and SYFI creature to exist. Apparently—Triton—messed with these aliens' genetics and created synthetic genomics to use for selective breeding. They wanted to revolutionize mankind, but what they did was release unstable, unfamiliar, rebellious creatures that created havoc until SHEILD managed to overpower them and destroy the organization long with its experiments.

Annora sighed and rubbed her eyes tired of all the conflict. She was always somehow in the crossfire of it no matter if it was an old one too. But who was she to complain right? As long as she knew what was going on she shouldn't complain since others aren't fortunate to know. The whooshing of the wind whipping against the Quinjet wouldn't faded into the background. Annora could on close her eyes and rest her head against her hands, her elbows on her knees. She reveled in the darkness behind her eyes for the peace it generally gave her. Today, it seemed wasn't the case. Her guilty conscious made itself known making her feel bad about not telling her father about leaving. He was asking her to quit but here she was going on a potentially dangerous mission. Given that this is SHEILD, all missions were dangerous except this one more. She didn't want to be taken for testing here. She didn't even tell Peter she was leaving for a while. Would he be worried, would he call her? Annora shakes off those infuriating thoughts. She was not about to go there. She couldn't allow this to get to her now—whatever this was. A mechanical hum rumbled from cargo door of the Quinjet. Annora pushed off from her seat.

"I'm guessing I'm jumping from here, huh?" Annora asked. Her voice had a tint of eagerness in it.

"Yeah, have fun." The pilot said grinning from his spot. Most people from SHEILD knew one of her most favorable abilities.

Annora nodded at him. "It was nice meeting you Pilot guy."

"It's Liam." She managed to hear from him as she already was running to the door and leapt out of the door.

Annora enjoyed the wind beating against her. She closed her eyes and breathed in the airy air. She smiled at that, airy air, that's new. All she could hear was a loud ringing in her ears. Her body was strumming with essence. Her stomach doing flip-flops. She missed this feeling she got when freefalling through the sky. Yes, when she was free to fly and now she could. Annora opened her eyes swiftly and shot her herself to the noticeable river peeking through the green mass of trees. While she would love to soar through the sky she couldn't. She had a mission to do.


	12. Chapter 11: Fancy a Problem

Scintilla of Aberrant

Chapter 11: Fancy a Problem

When Annora landed on the forest floor, she sent a whole bunch of leaves and dirt everywhere. She wobbled on her legs trying to fight them from dropping down to the floor. It seems that all that school and frittering around was a detriment. Her landing skills had always been rough. And she couldn't just up and leap into the sky; it was the first way to get catch attention, especially in New York.

She could hear them now—the animals—surrounding her with their constant twittering. She could smell the dirt beneath her and there was this sweetened smell in the air like nectar. It was inane thought, but she wanted to live in the woods. Others wouldn't even set a thought on that but she had a feeling some people would too. There _were_ people who lived in the woods. It was the silence from cars and maybe because no pollution would clog her lungs. She always felt at home around any type of woods where it was warm and moist.

Annora brought out her phone, checking her location. Hell would break over before she came to a mission without one. Agents received device that held all information and a map of their surroundings but Annora's phone was basically the same and more. Liam, as he said, dropped her five miles from this supposedly Triton base. Rapidly scrutinizing the map on the screen, she lightly trekked through an opening in the trees. She would have to walk from her on; she didn't want to be spotted flying through the sky.

She couldn't understand it, but as she made her way through the uneven terrain, it gave her a strange foreboding feeling. She didn't know what she would find there. What she does know is that she was send to get information, find a way to take down the base, and get the hell out. If this so called organization was as real as how the files on them stated, why would they bring up a base in Indonesia where the rainforests was slowly getting chopped down? Only half of the rainforest was left since people were stripping trees left and right.

Annora scrunched her nose as she walked, her boots sinking into the damp soil, studying the patches of sunlight managing to come through the treetops. It's only been ten minutes and she was starting to rethink about liking the rainforests. She checked the temperature on her phone and was not surprised to see it was eighty-freakin'-six degrees Fahrenheit. Annora's eyes flickered around her, dumbfounded. Where the in the abyss did all this damn mist come from? Rolling in waves, the thin silvery haze swept over her, hindering her view. Wait…that's not—

"Fuck!" She managed to say before a fist nearly collided with her face. Swiveling out of the way, her eyes settled on a man clothed in colors matching the foliage around them. Not taking her eyes off him, she eyed the gun strapped to his hip. First mistake of his was not using the gun first. It made it all the more easier for her; the noise of the gun might have alerted any others near them. The snap of a twig behind her got her in action. She swept her right leg around her on the ground, the person behind her fell to the floor. Annora dodged a blow to her stomach from the first man. Putting her confusion on why they didn't use their guns on her behind her she put two quick punches to the side of the his head and he staggered backwards, and went down. She was starting to burn up, her essence was pumped and at work on keeping her body energized. The second man that tried to get the jump on her from behind was stumbling to get up. Annora turned around with her gun out, but stopped at the grin on the man's face. A large striking scar crossed over from his eyebrow down to the corner of his lip—something that momentarily caused her stare before her eyes settled on his dark leering eyes. He had an edgy, predatory look to him. His was a smile of a rabid wolf just before it set its sharp teeth on a trapped doe. It was a look all too familiar to Annora—a face all too familiar.

He took one step towards her and for some inexplicable reason, Annora took a step back. She knew then, beyond doubt, what kind of look his was—_who he was_. She'd seen it before, long ago when her father almost lost her to the child protective services. When she was lost, the worst possible scenario happened to lost little Annora. She didn't let him get further before she had her gun trained on him, her hands shaking too slight to really see. His hands came up in surrender with a permanent mocking smirk etched on his face.

"Little firebug," He said in a sickly sweet voice. His eyes fixated on her, roaming over her body.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Her greeting not exactly polite. She inwardly cursed as her voice shook the tiniest amount. His false sweet voice irking her.

"That's not how you greet old friends, little girl," He admonished. Annora tensed.

"I'm not—"

He cut her off taking a few more steps closer and Annora moved backwards, away from him. "It's not that I don't want to talk to you but… I in a bit of a hurry so forgive me."

Abruptly, the scene played out like a slow-motion movie. Each bated breath seemed like it took hours to get. Not paying attention to anything other than the sick twisted man in front of her, Annora missed the man sneaking up behind her with a outlandish syringe in his hand—a blue shadowy substance in it. By the time she sensed him behind her, it was too late. The man stabbed ruthlessly into the side of her neck. Annora only had a few seconds to comprehend what was happening before her body failed her and gave out to the drug unwillingly put into her body. Her body was flaccid in the man's arms.


End file.
